FINISHED!

My Lucinda Brodie quilt is done!  Binding is sewn as well!  Now I have to make the label.  Just in time for our guild quilt show -- we set up tomorrow, and it runs all month at the South Hill Library.  Come see our quilts if you're in the neighborhood.

PROGRESS!

I have finished my IQ buddy's block!  This simplified or mock cathedral window block is super easy to make, and what a pretty thing it is!  I supposed one could use white triangles over squares of colored fabrics, but I think I like the reverse much better.  An interesting thing about this method:  although I should have ended up with a 12 1/2" block, it was more like 12 1/4".  I guess that the quilting/sewing on the turned back folded side of the triangles drew up the fabric a little.  So, just in case it was needed, I added a 1" strip of white around the whole thing.  Another member of the IQ support group is assembling the blocks, and I didn't want her to be short changed with my smallish block.

Anyway, I told you that I had Lucinda up on the frame.  Here she is, ready to go. I decided to fill in the white spaces in the upper border with echoes of the designs.  I didn't like that as much as I hoped I would, but I'm stuck with it now, because I have neither the time nor the inclination to rip it all out.

Here are a few of the blocks.  I don't know if the quilting is visible or not.  But, you can magnify these pictures significantly by clicking on them, though, and that should help you to see the quilting.  I'm using a thin thread that I haven't used before.  After this, I'm going to stick to cotton thread.  It quilts up better.  But I figure it's ok to experiment on my own quilts.

I'm not sure you can see the feathered circle in the center of this block.  The IQ can make these from scratch.  So I insert a circle, tweak it to fit the actual dimensions of the circle of cloth I am working with (even if it's a little cattywompus!), designate the circle as a "path", and add the feathers in whatever number and size looks good.  With the IQ, you can try out all sorts of combinations first before settling on the one you like best.  Easy Peasy.

In this one, the circle of feathers is more visible.  The flying geese blocks were quilted with continuous curves.   If you're in southern Virginia during the month of March, come to the guild show at the South Hill, VA library and take a look at all the pretty quilts!

This is the last row of the quilt before the bottom border.  I have done one star on it but had to stop for dinner .  Tomorrow I'll finish it and Sunday I'll bind it -- I hope.  The show starts Tuesday.

A very good day, full of progress.

PROCRASTINATION

Lucinda is on the quilt frame, but I'm upstairs sewing away at my block for the quilt for IQ friend with breast cancer.  I'm using the colors found in a swatch of fabric called Peony Tales by South Sea Imports. 

First I cut 2 1/2" blocks of a background fabric.  Mine is white.  Then I cut 2 1/2" squares of each of my overlay fabrics, fold them in half to make triangles, and press (as above).

I place one triangle of the colored fabric over the background fabric square and pin.

Then I do the same thing with the next colored triangle.  Now I have two colors overlaying the background fabric square.

The triangles need to be stabilized in their positions, so next I sew around the BACKGROUND square about 1/8" in from the edge.

Now I can start arranging the squares into blocks of four.

I decide how I want the blocks of four to interact with the other blocks of four.

When I am satisfied with my arrangement, I sew individual blocks of four together.  Then I sew those blocks to the other blocks.  I chose to use a square of the inspiration fabric in the middle.

Now the fun part: I turn back the folded edge of each triangle and stitch along the edge, creating a curved space through which I can see my background fabric.  A lovely pattern arises, looking very much like a scrappy orange peel block. 

Now that I've gotten this block well underway, I will descend to my lurkim and give Lucinda my undivided attention for the next four hours.

DOUBLE TIME

The Lake Gaston Piecemakers Quilt Guild is a very busy and prolific guild.  The members are always doing something interesting. Sometimes we teach each other a specific skill (mine is paper piecing).  Other times we start a project and pass it off to the next person, as happened with the Round Robin, above.  This delightfully serene quilt was finished by Myrt, who brought it to me to quilt.  It will go to the outpatient chemo unit at the local hospital.  The backing is the softest flannel!  Someone will surely welcome the warmth and comfort of this quilt as he or she sits in that recliner receiving his/her meds.

While my IQ was chugging away during each row of the pantograph on the Round Robin quilt, I was able to finish appliqueing the bottom panel for my Lucinda Brodie border.  Today I will assemble the rest of the quilt and put it on my quilting frame.

I don't think I will have any time to do another project while quilting Lucinda since it's all going to be custom, but in case I do, here are the fabrics for the next small endeavor.  These will go into a block, which will be joined by other blocks from other IQ support group members, and will become a very special quilt for one of our team, who is dealing with breast cancer surgery, chemo, and radiation. 

MULTITASKING

By now you know, if you have been following this blog, that I am working on a major opus called Lucinda Brodie. This quilt requires an inordinate amount of time to do because it has applique in it. I don't particularly like applique, so I elected to do it with the sewing machine, using a tiny blanket stitch. I don't like doing it that way, either, but at least it's faster.

This is a time consuming effort, and I hate to waste time on just one thing.  For instance, I, like most of you out there, can be washing clothes, cleaning the house, cooking chili on the stove, and listening to music all at the same time.  At the end of the day, I would feel like I've accomplished something.

I had these charity quilts to do for some of our guild members, and I didn't want to sit in my studio and work JUST on Lucinda Brodie, so I cranked up the iPod in its player, loaded Vanessa's Disappearing Nine Patch onto the quilt frame downstairs in my lurkim and selected a cute pantograph to go with the Halloween themed fabrics Vanessa had chosen.

While the IntelliQuilter was stitching out a row, I was appliqueing.  And at the end of 7 rows, here was the result.

In this view you can see the bats and witches hats in the design.

And in this one,you can see the bats again and pumpkins.  Cute, huh?

While I was downstairs in my lurkim, I had a pot of spaghetti sauce simmering on the stove.  I love the aroma of homemade spaghetti sauce.  There's something energizing about it to me.  The day would have been perfect if I could have figured out how to fold clothes at the same time as sewing and quilting and cooking and listening to music, but I had to settle for just doing four things at once. 

I don't think I'll show you my applique just yet.  It took another quilt on the frame with another pantograph for me to finish it.  I'll show you that one tomorrow.

Continuing Saga...

Join the party at Quilt Block's blog!  Send them a photo of your most recent project that uses .... FABRIC!  Did you guess it?  Anyway, here's mine.  I've done one applique border for my Lucinda Brodie.  Woo hoo!

This store really likes contests, so check in with them from time to time.

By the way, if you're thinking of appliqueing a border, DON'T do it the way I did.  I added the border and THEN appliqued.  WRONG!  The second one is already measured, and the designs are fused to it in preparation for interminable blanket stitch appliqueing tomorrow.  Then I'll sew the border on AFTER all the applique is done.  Live and learn.

I'm also hosting a class on the Disappearing Nine Patch quilt for my guild tomorrow.  We're all getting together to sew our Outreach quilts.  By the end of the month, we should have 30 quilts to hand in to Madeline's House.  I don't know if that will be enough or too many -- they wouldn't tell me how many residents they had, but after some round about talking, I'm guessing this is a good estimate.

Off to the lurkim to cut batting for the charity quilts.  Have a great day!  And don't forget to check out the Quilt Story blog!

TIME FOR A BREAK!

OK.  Here's what I started with today.  I had my nine star blocks and 24 strips of flying geese sashing, which I arranged in (hopefully) pleasing color segues, following the quilt pattern that determines the direction of the flying geese.  I took a picture at this point because I was afraid with all the sewing of pieces together, I might accidentally "rearrange" and lose the order I wanted them to be in.  And that actually happened, so you might think of doing that yourself if you have a complicated quilting project like this.

Next was to make the 16 cornerstone blocks where the sashings come together.  These required appliqueing a fussy cut flower circle in the middle of each block.

Finally it was time to assemble the star blocks with the flying geese sashing and the cornerstone blocks.

This has taken ALL day!  Whew!  I am definitely tired tonight.  A huge salad with Tuscan Boule bread sounds like just the ticket!  Good night all.

QUILT STORY CONTEST

These are my three most favorite blocks from the Lucinda Brodie quilt I am making, using the pattern supplied in the Australian Patchwork and Quilting Magazine, Vol 18, No 5 from 2009.  I am entering them in the traditional category for the block contest going on at the Quilt Story blog.

If you haven't already been there, check the block party contest out.  Some of the blocks are STUNNING!

For those of you visiting for the first time from the Quilt Story gang, thumb through the Flickr badge to see some of my work. If you're more industrious, scroll back through the blog entries to see others.  And if you need long arm quilting, email me!

THE FRONT NINE

Hurray!  I have finished the nine blocks for my Lucinda Brodie quilt.  I am almost finished making the flying geese, too. Another day and those should be done.  That is, IF I don't have to spend several hours on the phone with AT&T again. 

We have gotten new phones and service, since our old provider has sold out to AT&T.  Although the sales people couldn't be nicer, there have been many, many problems setting up the account and getting our old numbers into the new phones.  Turns out it's a snafu on AT&T's part, but in the last four days, it has taken two visits to the store for a total of five hours and three telephone calls, each taking 30 - 90 minutes, during which each helpful but uninformed woman assisting us has had to retrace all the steps that had been taken by all the "helpers" who went before her.  Sigh... 

One of these days we'll get it all straightened out. Meanwhile, we bought one of their MicroCell boosters.  Our area of EBF, VA has poor reception for our cell phones.  Our former provider, Alltel, had the best reception, but they sold out partly to Verizon and partly to AT&T.  We tried Verizon and got ZERO reception here.  We're in the section sold to AT&T.  Even though for most of the surrounding countryside in our area we get adequate cellular coverage, we only get one bar in our home, if that.  But with this new gadget, we get five bars!!! Woo hoo!!!  At least THAT problem is solved!

TEAMWORK

The Lake Gaston Piecemakers Quilt Guild meets every Wednesday for one reason or another.  The first Wednesday of the month is Scrappies.  Those of us who love scrap quilts bring our projects to a local church gathering room and sew together, enjoying the cameraderie in an otherwise solitary pursuit.

Today, eight women joined me to cut more 5" squares from the last of the fabric manufacturers' samples as well as a huge garbage bag full of scraps that a lady from my community had given me for potential use by the guild.  After two hours, we had pretty much cut what could be cut from all of the fabrics, and now it falls to me to divide them up into designer or color sorted packets for use in one of our Outreach quilts this month.

Next Wednesday is our guild meeting, during which these packets will be distributed to anyone who wants to participate in the Disappearing Nine Patch marathon on the following two Wednesdays.

This cluster of purples caught my eye, especially the set of patches with the soft peach in them.  If no one claims this set, I'm going to make another D9P with these and use a rich peach as the "pop" fabric in the middle of each block.

Meanwhile, my Lucinda Brodie progresses, albeit slowly.  The flying geese, above, are ready to go as soon as I make the last 30 of them.  During this week, while DH is waiting to start his new job next Monday, we two have been doing household projects here and there, which has diverted my focused energy from getting my basic building blocks done for my quilt.  However, tomorrow, DH is going to his new job to set up his tool boxes in their (hopefully) permanent home, and I have decided to stay home and sew to make up for lost time.

I'll miss him... for a while.

QOV DONE. ON TO LUCINDA BRODIE!

I received this beautiful QOV in the mail last Saturday and started quilting it Tuesday.  I finished it today!  There were some tension problems on the back.  I ripped out a few blocks and did them over.  Still problems.  Ripped out a few sections of each block and did over.  A little better, but not show quality, that's for sure.  Fortunately this quilt is not going in a show.  Even so, I wanted the soldier who was going to get it to like it.  At least the front is  wonderful.  Here are some close-ups:

This is the border treatment.  The swag with stars is one pattern (sorry about the errant thread in there), and I added the straight lines to it to fill in the empty space between the top of the swag and the inner border, which is an egg and dart pattern.

Each star block was quilted with this pattern, which is also seen in the intervening setting blocks.  In order to fill the setting triangles, I wanted to keep the basic pattern, so I cut and clipped and rejoined parts of the original block pattern to make this nifty triangle, below.

When my guild friend, Myrt, came today to pick up her first charity quilt (see the previous blog), she took a look at my Lucinda Brodie blocks and insisted that I put her other outreach quilts on the back burner until my new quilt was finished.  This comes as welcome news to me, because if I can finish it by March 1, I hope to enter it in my guild's annual quilt show all month long in March at the South Hill Library. 

So, off I go to my studio.  First to set the circles into the background and then to do all the flying geese.  BFF Mary has finished all these steps already!  She is so far ahead of me.  But then, she always is.  Check out her blog to see this gorgeous quilt!

BAD HAIR DAY

Today I woke up sporting a pompadour, a la Ace Ventura.  Even water liberally applied would not tame the mane.  Add to that the shock of seeing myself standing in front of the mirror au naturel, my 60+ year old bustline looking like something out of National Geographic, and the day wasn't exactly getting off to a good start.  So I decided that I would stay out of sight of civilization and quilt. 

This is a quilt for our Outreach program in the guild.  It was given to me to quilt by one of our members.  Now, I don't charge guild members for quilting their charity quilts, but I don't want to do 10 or 20 of them and not get something out of it besides brownie points, either.  So I would like to ask you all out there to give me some feedback:  what if I agreed to quilt someone's charity quilt if they would also bring to me their non-outreach quilt of equal or larger size to quilt for pay?  That would let me expand my customer base and still donate some of my time to charitable endeavors.  Smaller quilts can easily be quilted on one's home machine, so I think a cut off of 40" in the smallest dimension is reasonable, too.  Maybe this would encourage our members to make larger quilts.  We seem to be having a run on smaller ones.  (Our guild supplies the batting for these quilts, just in case you wondered.)  Let's hear what you have to say on my proposal.  Be honest.

While I was quilting, I put a pot of chili in the slow cooker for this evening's dinner.  Today the sight of me would have offended the finer senses of the locale.  Tomorrow it'll probably be the chili.  Maybe I should plan on staying home again tomorrow....  After all, I DO have those charity quilts to do AND my Lucinda Brodie.