I'M BACK AND READY TO POST

Hi Everyone!  I know that probably no one read's either of my blogs anymore.  But I needed somewhere to post projects that I could talk about them more than I can on Instagram.  I haven't made a whole lot of things the past few years because I was working full-time and just didn't have the energy to do anything else.  I retired a year ago and I have set aside the knitting for a while to concentrate on clearing out some UFO's.  I have finished a couple of quilt tops this summer, and I have picked up Dear Jane again after a 2-year pause. 

I've decided to start a blog dedicated to Dear Jane Tips and Tricks I will post a link when I get situated with it. 

This is one of the quilt tops that I finished this summer it was made with Swell Christmas fabrics designed for Moda for Urban Chiks.. The pattern is called Jingle Jangle Quilt.  it was fun to make! 

This is a possible layout for this neutral Hexie quilt I am making.  Gave me an excuse to use up a bunch of my neutrals, taupes, greys, word prints.  The possible border was part of a kit that was going to be used for a different quilt, but as time went by, I didn't like the design of that quilt, so I took the kid apart to use fabrics for something else.  This is an ongoing mindless project.  I just wanted something I could easily drag along with me. And Dear Jane is too difficult to be an option. 

The only other thing that I have going on this year is a miniature quilt round robin that I am doing with my friends.  It should finish up in December.  This is my center square, project journal, and tote for the project. 

I have another top that I need to put borders on, and I will post when I have photos.   Until then, I will be posting regularly, but maybe on my Jane blog since that Is my main concentration these days. 
I hope to hear from you if you are still out there. 

WOW

That's all I can say.  It's been a LONG time since I blogged anything.  I've blogged a couple of things on my miniature quilt blog, but this one has been a little over THREE YEARS!!  I was going to start a new blog, but when I looked at this one, I decided not to bother. I can put projects that I'm working on here again.  not that anyone is even bothering to look any more.  Keep tuned!!

CHECKING IN - JULY

I'm back!  I had shoulder surgery in May, so I have spent most of my time knitting.  But, now that my arm is out of the sling, and it is doing fairly well, I can get my hands up under the needle again.  This is what I am working on

Not especially exciting.  I had a jellyroll of Moda Marbles and I had my friend cut some strips for me to use as background I'm slowly piecing it together because I'm not totally sure how it will go together or how big it will be.  I think that it will end up being a gift because it is a little too pastel for me.  Truthfully, I can't believe that I even bought this to start with.  I probably would have loved it if I had made the background some sort of black.  But I wanted to try something out of my comfort zone.. this is it..  not one piece of black in it. 

Other than this, it is basically a normal summer fitting things in-between work and everything else.  But I know that I will be stocked up even more with warm knits for the winter.. so come on cold weather!!

JUNE ALREADY

It's June already.  Where has the time gone?  Seems like I was only just digging out of snow.    I haven't been sewing much because I am recovering from another shoulder surgery.  I have been content to finish up some knitting UFO's.  I tried about 4 times to teach myself how to knit socks on circular needles, but it is so fiddly, I'm not sure that I will like the technique.  So I have gone back to my tried and true method of DPN's.

I had my husband cut a piece of 1/4" plywood to fit the bottom of my Sterilite drawer, and put in 3/16" dowels to hold all of my cones of thread in place.  It has taken forever, but I have finally found something that works with this size spool.  I can be supremely disorganized in many areas, but with some things, I like to know what I have and be able to lay my hand on it when it need it.

So I am spending my time off of work not really being able to do what I would like.  So it is a long and boring time off.  I'm going back early so that when I finally CAN do what I want, I will have to fit it in between work time.  The worst part is going to be getting up at 5am again..

Will be back when there is something fun to talk about!

SPRING FEVER

We have given up our snowstorms, and have gone to daily flood warnings and tornado watches.  It is getting rather dreary and old.
My friends and I worked on some miniature quilt projects to display at the ARTIST AS QUILTMAKER event in Oberlin.  You can find it under the "Other Displays" link. 

I have lots of projects planned.  Some hand piecing, and some English Paper Piecing, and the ever time consuming, knitting.  I'm going to be taking some time away from my machine which will make it easier to  take it to have it cleaned up.  Gotta keep it working. As much fun as it would be to update, I really love my machine, and don't want to shell out the increasing dollars that it takes to buy a new one. 
Will have some updates as they become available!!

OTHER THINGS

Happy Easter!  It is quiet around here now that most of my kids are living out of State.  I finished up both of the miniature quilts that I have been working on for months.  The top one is 17" and the bottom one is 15'.

So I found myself needing something to do.. yes, I have plenty of UFO's, but I wanted to start something new.  So I took out my CLASSMATE pattern and got to work.
A few years ago,I made a bag out of selvedge squares that I put together. The bag was just too big, so I took it apart knowing that eventually I would find something where I could put it to use.
Here is what I came up with

I had to fiddle around with the handles and the stip on the bottom that holds the bottom clasp. That ended up on the lower front instead of the very bottom as it should. After it was all together, I took these off and moved them to more proper places.   I guess that I just didn't understand the pattern for placement. I think I would approach it differently if I ever made another one.

It's a beautiful sunny day here.  And since I put off doing laundry, that is what will take up a good part of my day.  I hope that your day is nice.

PROJECTS

Ive been  working almost every day on something.. mostly the same things because they are taking so long.
I made a new bag using a couple of fat quarters, one from Lunn with faces, the other called Zombie apocalypse which is a Riley Blake design .  I used the Pink Sand Beach 'Barbados' bag and put the front pocket on both sides.

I have been working on a couple of miniature quilts that you can read about in my other blog if you want to.  After having to rip and start almost from scratch on the little lone star, I finally finished up the top at 15".  I have to do a couple more applique things on the red and white vortex and that will be finished at about 18"

The Blue vortex was one of the four samples that I made while trying to get what I actually wanted. It is the only sample that I finished.  The pickle dish is one block from a quilt that I have been kind of working on for years, but probably won't continue, and the red and white at the bottom is a mini that my friend Nancy made that I am going to quilt.

My Son and his new wife moved out of state last month.  They were going to take their cat Maxi, but when they decided to drive instead of fly, they had to leave him with me.  So far they plan to come back and get him.  He's a doll.  I will miss him. 

 

I'm not a great cat lover.  I don't love them enough to put up with the ones that have 'issues'.  But I have had a couple in my life that I truly loved. Maybe because they were more like dogs.  Maxi is one of them.  I'm going to hate to see him go home. Although the litter has proved to be too much for me.  Too heavy to handle.  I have seen some lighter weight litters, I can try those, but then I might want to talk my son into letting him stay, and I'm trying not to do that because I know that he loves him too. 

I decided to start a hand project. A first I thought I would just make a scrappy quilt with little six pointed stars, but when making a sample out of a stack of red fat quarters, I decided to go with a Seven Sisters in all reds and some sort of black print background.

Seven sisters looks like this, depending on what kind of setting you decide to put it in.  That is something that I will figure out in ten years if I am finished.. 

I hope that your spring is nice.. ours is normal, snow storm one day and sixty degrees and sunny the next. Oh well, good thing I'm an 'indoor girl'..

 

SIGNATURE QUILT

I made up a bunch of these 2" blocks, and took them with me to quilt shows  and to classes and would ask quilt instructors to sign them.  My intent was to make a 20"  miniature signature quilt with the blocks.  The blocks laid around for years, until a few months when I came across them and decided that it was time to finally put them all together.
  In the meantime, I had another project with old photos on fabric that I thought of using with this small quilt.   Kind of like killing two birds with one stone.  But, I couldn't come up with any brilliant ideas for the design so I made about 100 more blocks and put the embroidered saying that I was going to use with this other project into this one. 

Since this saying focuses on female quilters, I took out the two male quilt instructor signatures that I had collected .  When I got the top sewn together, before I could give instructions, it was passed around guild and signed.  Not necessarily a problem, only a couple of the signatures were upside down, and I had to take them out and re-orient them.  Wouldn't have been a big deal but they were, of course, towards the center of the quilt and not on the edge.  And I am just too much of a perfectionist to stand seeing two signatures upside down.

 Anyway, here it is so far.  I'm going to let it hang and 'talk to me' for a while.  I still have a few ideas spinning around in my head about what I can do with this. It will probably end up with a border, and maybe a little more. I still may incorporate the photos with this.  Or maybe I will just leave well enough alone and just finish it.

Signature quilt 28" x 30"

Detail of the embroidery

RICE BAGS

I made 25 Rice bags for Christmas gifts this year.  They always seem to be a favorite, especially to non-sewers.  I used this pattern LAZY GIRL RICE BAG .   I have made it several times before, always intending to make the zipper bag, but I never got that far.

The first bags I made a few years ago had muslin for the inner liner and cotton fabric for the outer.  This year I decided to dive into my huge flannel stash and make all of them out of a double layer of flannel, which seems to retain the heat and are more snuggly.

I will admit that it took me 24 bags to get the idea of just layering the two fabrics and sewing them together as one unit.  Doing it this way saves an entire step.  I also printed out use labels onto printer fabric and zig zag stitched it 1" in on one corner of the outer bag before I sewed them.  I think that most people know how to use rice bags, but you never know.  I marked the outer bag every 2.5" with a chalk pencil and filled each section with 1/3 cup of rice.

I got 25 pound bags of rice at Sams club for less than 10 dollars.  All in all a nice, economical gift that people seem to really like.   Just an idea if you want to get started early for next year!

Keep warm!
Teri

SLACKER AT THE END OF AN OLD YEAR

I was looking back through my posts and realize that I have only posted SIX times in 2012!!  This post makes seven.  Pretty pathetic from someone who used to be so prolific.  So what has changed?  I've pretty much given up sitting at the computer for long stretches of time reading political stuff, I seldom turn on the news anymore.  I just decided that I don't need a constant barrage of bad news.  And I decided that I would wait to blog when I felt I could do so without putting my total disappointment and cynicism out for the world to see.

Let's see, how do I sum up my year in one post?  I mostly can say that nothing exciting happens around here.  I got a new car.  A car with all wheel drive, and for the first time I realized that I wasn't scared to death driving on un -plowed roads on my way to work in the morning.  My son got married the whole first in last out applies.  He and I were always close and I miss him being around.

Did I set any goals?  Nope.  I probably won't meet them anyway.  But New Year is one of my favorite holidays because I always get a feeling that I am getting another chance to 'get it right'. 

I finished two full size quilts, and one miniature, and a lap quilt for a Christmas gift.  At the beginning of the year I hoped that I would finish my UFO's.  Mostly I re-evaluated what it is that I really want to make.  And I am going to make an effort to do so this year.  I did get some knitwear finished.  I can do that sitting in my chair with my feet up which is why I get more knitting done.  Plus, unlike quilting, it is easy to tote along and work on in the car.

As of tomorrow, a hospital that has been around more than 100 years will be no more.  This hospital has been so much a part of my life.  I was a volunteer there all through high school putting in more than 1000 hours. I had my son there.  And all-together will have worked there nearly 25 years.  It took one political party's control of congress for one session to make it so bad for healthcare that it was either sell out or close doors.  Yes.  I'm bitter.  I may be even more bitter if the new place decides they don't need us around anymore.

As far as my goals for the next year goes, I will play it by ear.  I have several (15) kits put together for quilts.  I had an idea for a red and white miniature display at a summer quilt show.. So I have to get started and make something.  Half a sleeve to go and my pullover sweater will be finished.  Other than this, I want to spend more time with my family and friends because they are all that counts in this life.

I wish for you and yours a very Happy New Year.  I hope that you have a roof over your head, food on your table, good health and lots of love!

Teri