Give-a-way Winner!

The winner of the charm pack give-a-way, according to Random.org, is Janet. (I haven't quite figured out how to post a picture of the results from their site yet, but I promise it is her.)  Janet said she was hoping to make a charity baby quilt with the charm pack.  A lovely notion!  This is great fabric for that.

In other news, the art class with the kindergartners was today.  It went well, but the teacher and I decided not to give the kids the additional options of drawing figures in coats.  Evidently, two other kindergarten classes went yesterday and things got a little crazy and tears were shed.  In the interest of keeping everyone sane, and the kids from crying, we just did simple panels instead.  The kids did great!   I wish you were there!

Tomorrow, I am working on my block for the Desperate Housewives Quilt from Jane's Blog Want it, Need it, Quilt it.  It's not going to be an easy one, but I hope it will be an interesting one.  Look for that post at the end of the week.

February Free Motion Challenge

Well, it was time.  I practiced as much on paper as I could.  I did a few practice sandwiches, but today it was time to do the feathers for real.  And I can't say they look any better than when I started.  (Sorry about the picture, the kids have finally broken my camera for good, so I had to use an alternative.)

It still looks a lot more like seaweed to me than feathers.  I was really hoping that because I am no good at drawing, things would look better once sewn.  I found that to be true with the leaves from last month.  I think it has to do with a right brain/left brain thing.  Something about having my other hand involved engages the other side of my brain and "helps" things along.  Well, that theory was obviously not proven true with these darn feathers!

Hopefully, the next few months of challenges will strengthen my skills further and I can come back and revisit the feathers again.  Maybe then, they will look more like feathers!

You can still join the challenge at  Sew Cal Gal's Blog.  It really is helping me!

So No Sew - Art with the Kids today

No sewing today.  Unfortunate, since I have so much to do by Wednesday!  But today was one of my art with the kids days.  Today, I taught the 3rd graders.  Wednesday, I get to teach the Kindergartners.  The project is based on some of the works of Gustav Klimt.  If there was ever an artist who's work was begging to be made into an art quilt, it is that guy (maybe minus the partial nudity)!  Here is the example I made at docent training:

I know it is not ready for the museum or anything, but considering how badly I draw, I am pretty proud of it.  Can you see I also tried to incorporate this month's free motion challenge feathers too?

It is a really fun project, but it has a LOT of steps.  I was a little worried that it would be a disaster with the kids, even with the 3rd graders.  But, they did a magnificent job!!!  I wish I could show you some of their work.  You will just have to wait until Wednesday, when my kid gets to complete it.  I am supposed to teach the younger kids a simplified version, but I am torn.  I think they could do the portrait.  It will be a day-of decision, no doubt.


Don't forget to join my giveaway before you leave!

Batik Stripe UFO Progress

The back is done.  But, I'm not sure I love it.

The squares were leftovers, and the stripe fabric was actually the first one I bought to do the project.  But once I had assembled all the other coordinating stripe fabrics, this one's colors just didn't fit in.  I thought the fabric was so pretty that it would make a good backing.  Sounds logical right?  Well, now that I look at it all together I find myself having a conversation with myself going something like this:

"It sure is a pretty fabric on the bolt."
"Yes, but I'm not sure it goes with the squares."
"Well, it goes with some of the squares."
"It sure would be a waste not to use it, and you have nothing else to use it for right now."
"Hmmm, does that gold part make it look like a baby has thrown up on it??
"Oh, come on, Jen!  It is the BACK of the darn quilt!  No one is even going to see it except by accident!"

What do you guys think?

Don't forget to sign up for my charm pack giveaway before you go!

Name Game Quilt FINISHED

It's officially done!  I put the finishing touches on it today and washed it.  I just have to figure out how I am going to mail it, and it will be off!  I am really anxious to know if my partner likes it or not.  Like, really, really anxious!

Here's a picture of the back.  I had a few tidbits of the Moda "Twirl" charm pack left over and felt like they should make it into the quilt.  After all, what was I going to do with them?  They belonged with their friends.

I also spent a little time today trying to figure out what I am going to do for the back of this quilt.  The fabric I had planned wasn't quilt large enough, and I have a bunch of leftover 3 inch squares.  Hmmmm.....

This is the UFO I am supposed to finish for February.  Right, like that's going to happen in the next 4 days!

Don't forget to enter the GIVE-A-WAY I posted the other day.  I think the "Walk in the Woods" charm pack would make a great apron, or set of pillowcases, or perhaps a baby quilt, or Oooo, a tote bag.  There are so many options!  And it is really cute fabric.  Why am I giving it away again??  Oh yeah, I've already got too many projects in the hopper!

Modern block design

A while ago, Jane of Want It, Need It, Quilt It, asked me to participate in her Desperate Housewives Quilt.  She has been designing all kinds of lovely 8 inch blocks for this quilt, and has asked some guest bloggers to do the same.  I couldn't believe it when she asked me!  I have never really designed a block before and modern isn't really my style, although I do appreciate it.  So I began to think and think and think.  I had one idea almost immediately, but it seems pretty plain.  So I decided I needed some inspiration.  Where did I go?  Where do I go for almost anything I need - Target.

I can't seem to get out of the place without 10 extra things in my cart.  This day was no different.  The baby and I were there for baby wipes and cereal.  We left with a cart full of stuff. BUT, I also did see a bunch of stuff that had modern designs that I found interesting.  Here are a few:

Now, nothing I saw seemed better than my original idea, but I plan on taking a few more pics here and there before sitting down to my sketchbook and coming up with the final submission which is due in March.  (Yes, that means soon!)  Stay tuned!

And don't forget to check out yesterday's post for a GIVE-A-WAY!

Thank you random generator - A GIVE-A-WAY

Many of you have already sent me congratulations on my latest give-a-way win via the January free motion challenge at Sew Cal Gal.  Thank you!  The random generator has indeed been generous since I joined the blogging community a couple of months ago.   I would normally call myself "one who never wins anything" as I have frequently been the purchaser of 9 of 10 raffle tickets, and the other one won...but it seems to not be true at the moment.  I am enjoying it!

AND, in the spirit of keeping the good Karma coming, I have decided to give-a-way something myself!  A "Walk in the Woods" Moda Charm pack.  I just couldn't wait until my 100th post, or some other milestone.  I want someone else to feel the joy of winning NOW!

Rules are simple: leave me a comment telling me what you might do with this lovely little charm pack.  If you are a follower, please leave a separate comment telling me that too, so you can get a bonus entry!  Yes, you can become a follower if you are not already one.  And yes, you can live outside the US. Just make sure that your settings are not set to be a "no-reply" blogger!

DID I mention, I will pay for the shipping?

I will draw the winner on Leap Day!  February 29th.

Good luck!!

A new favorite product

First, I am in no way being compensated for this endorsement....  I just thought I would pass along a thumbs up for:

I have only tried on other type of "invisible thread" that I bought from my local quilt shop on this quilt...

It was, in short, a disaster!  Tension difficulties, about 7 broken needles, and I was essentially quilting straight lines, not circles, at a slow speed.  Talk about your headaches!  But this Superior Mono-Poly thread has made be forget all that!  It was recommended by Nancy Prince at her thread painting class in January.

I figured I would give it a try this week as I began to quilt my name game quilt.  As you saw from previous pictures, those mini's I made for the borders have a lot of colors, so I figured why not try out the invisible thread one more time.  So far, it has worked really well.  I haven't had any tension problems, no broken needles and it looks pretty good!  I can't wait to post pictures of the final product!  Soon, soon...

How do Quilters Curse?

With one of these...

I saved the most difficult of the mini's for today, and it took me HOURS to complete.  I used my seam ripper almost as much as my sewing machine.  And even though it is done, I am still not 100% satisfied with the result.  I learned an important lesson - some things are not meant to be miniaturized.  That said, of course I still incorporated the imperfect block into the quilt.  In the spirit of "mistakes show the love that was put into it", I put A LOT of love into that block!!  Unfortunately, I don't think I can show you a picture of it until my partner receives the final quilt, but I promise it will be a key feature on my next "lessons learned" page!

Here are some of the mini blocks I finished yesterday (sorry about the shadow)..

The lighthouse is another great example of one that shouldn't have been miniaturized.  Perhaps, it should have been a clue that it was not a good candidate if some of the lines were too small to print out on the paper (the ones around the roof of the lighthouse in particular).

I am happy to report - the top is done!  And I like how it turned out.  Hopefully, I will get a call today or tomorrow that my replacement open toe free motion foot has arrived.  I have a bunch of quilting to get started on!!

Sandwich anyone?

Replies to No-reply blogger - a Newbie blogger mistake.

This morning I thought it was high time to respond to some of the lovely comments I've received over the last week or so.  I love every one of those comments!  They lift my spirits, they make me feel camaraderie with other quilters, and they let me know that these posts are being received by someone in the universe.....  No, I'm not fishing for more comments, but since they do so much for me, those comments deserve a reply, right?  So, I got busy replying to a few.  I probably got 6 or 7 into it, and I realized that while they show up in my mailbox with a name attached, the replies I had just sent went to "no-reply blogger @ blogspot".  Too funny!  Some of the replies were quite lengthy!  I wonder if there is a someone who reads all the mail sent to "No-reply".  Perhaps he/she's spirits have been lifted? He/she feels camaraderie with me? or now doesn't feel so alone out there in the universe somewhere??

If you left a comment on one of my posts this week and didn't receive a response, it could be that your settings are set to "no-reply".  Please know that I appreciated your comment and hope that you will visit again.

After my emailing spree, I also managed to finish up all but 1 of the 7 mini's I needed to do today.  Tomorrow, the top SHALL BE finished!!  And I should be able to post a few more pictures without giving anything away!

100 days

Today, my daughter celebrated her 100th day of school. I don't remember having such a thing way back when, but for a kindergartener it was a very big deal! There was a big party, complete with a 100 different snacks, all manner of counting to 100 games, and a few crafts. It was a very exciting few hours! She is still floating on air.

Before the festivities, I managed to get a few more of my mini blocks complete. I need to make at least 7 more. I also tried to finish up the last part of my center, but ran into a few problems. I think I feel another "lessons learned" approaching! Hopefully, these issues will not set me back too much. I still hope to finish the top tomorrow or Wednesday. I really must contemplate what to do for the backing as I sleep tonight. Nothing like multi-tasking!

I may have a tiny addiction...

I'm not crazy, these are cute, right?

I think I might be addicted to mini's!  Seriously, last night I dreamed of mini's.  This morning the hubby took the kids out for a couple of hours, and in between loads of laundry, I couldn't help myself!  I sneaked down to  my sewing space and made a few more for my name game quilt.  These are the ones I made this morning, and I am especially proud of them because I "designed" them myself!  OK, OK, so the spool of thread wasn't that tough, but the tiny sewing machine??  I know, I'm tooting my own horn.

Hopefully, I can finish up all my mini's in the next few days and get the top finished.  More mini's to come!!!

Skunk!

When I was a young girl, my mom would send me to Connecticut every summer for a few weeks to spend time with my grandparents.  They lived in a small cottage, literally in the middle of the woods.  Coming from the "city life" of South Florida, the woods was such an intriguing place.  It was filled with all kinds of wildlife, and I spent hours just staring into the woods, convinced that at any moment I would see something spectacular!  Well, I did see the occasional deer, plenty of squirrels, chipmunks, and birds.  But, I only saw one skunk in 10 years of visiting those woods, and he or she was crossing the road in the middle of the night.  I always thought to myself, how hard could it be to spot that white stripe against the dark brown and green background of the forest?

Now I live in a suburb of Los Angeles, city as far as the eye can see.  Not really the place you think of wildlife, though we do have squirrels and birds, of course.  But most surprising, is that we seem to be the ideal habitat for skunks!  There must be 20 skunks living within a 5 block radius of my house.  No exaggeration!  My husband and I used to take evening walks around sunset and we would see dozens of them.  Some skunks were as large a bear cubs too!  Again, no exaggeration!  I laugh to myself that this, the most elusive of woodland creatures that I used to hope to see while staring into the real woods around Grandma's house, is now living all around me!  Funny! And slightly stinky!

No sewing today, just thought I would share.

The Crazy Quilters of Port St. Lucie quilt show

Last week, I went to a small local quilt show while visiting with my mom and grandma in Florida. It was lovely, and really fun to be able to attend with them. Here are a few pictures of some of the quilts that interested me.

Fun times!

Some observations:

I don't know whether the trend is coming or going or just different from my area, but boy those ladies sure love the embroidery functions of there machines! Nearly a third of the quilts I saw had some kind of machine embroidery embellishment on them. From large flowers added to the top of a traditional pieced design, to blocks with what looked like Spirograph pictures on them in multicolored thread. Some of them I liked very much, others I thought detracted from the quilting.

Color choices - many of the quilts in the show had bold colors in them. I wasn't too surprised as south Florida has a "Caribbean flair" to it. However, the fabric that was being sold in the vendor booths was the exact opposite. Pastels, neutrals, and civil war reproduction fabrics seemed to be everywhere. Even the selection of batiks were what I consider "safer" colors, like dark green, navy blue, the occasional copper. It was as if the quilters in the show were the ones daring enough to use color, but the rest of the people just wanted something subdued.

I had a great time, perhaps I will try to make it to the next one in 2 years.

Name game progress

It has been a few days since my last post, but I haven't been idle!  In fact, Monday turned out to be quite a productive day.  I got started on my Name Game quilt for the swap Samelia's Mum is having.  I managed to get the whole thing drawn out on paper, my background all put together, and the borders started.  Tuesday, I finished all the letters for my partner's name.  I decided to paper piece the letters of her name and in the process tried out "mini" paper piecing.  As I have said before - I don't let the fact that I have absolutely no idea what I am doing stop me from doing something new, so I gave it a try and I LOVE IT!!  Since I am not done yet, and it is supposed to be a secret until my partner receives it, I can't post many pictures, just a few "teasers" really.

background

Does your name have an "N" in it?

mini heart

Yesterday, I spent most of the day at the hospital with my niece, and today I'm taking my eldest to the dentist for a while, but hopefully I can get a few more mini blocks done for my border.  If I can get the top all pieced and ready by Tuesday, there is hope that the quilt will be done by the end of the month!

Let's get down to business

Now that the peacock quilt is done and I am back from my delivery trip, I really need to get down to business on my February projects.

Most importantly, my name game quilt for my swap partner. I have an idea all scribbled out in my sketchbook, but I need to get moving on making it! First, I had to pick up "kitty" from the shop. I dropped her off for her annual maintanence before my trip since those were "no sew" days anyway. I hope she is ready to be fired up. I also need to choose some coordinating fabrics for the background and borders. Then I need to get to sewing! I really need to have it in the mail before the end of the month so it has time to reach its destination.

Realistically, I doubt I will have any time to complete anything else except maybe this month's free motion challenge. I want to be able to put some detail into my partners quilt and that takes time. So while I am not giving up hope to try to work on this month's UFO #1, I am setting my expectations low so I don't freak myself out. After all, my partner is counting on me to receive a quilt with her name on it, but no one but me was expecting that UFO to get done. Am I being logical, or wimpy?

Sunrise on the Atlantic, Sunset on the Pacific

I was up before the dawn even thought about showing its first light.  In fact, the sun was just coming up over the Atlantic as my plane took off.  It was a beautiful sight!  Now I am back home in my little beach town in Los Angeles, and in a few hours will get to see the sun go down over the Pacific.  I know it sounds almost romantic to get to see both happen, but I got to tell you, I am about to fall asleep and I still have to pick up the kids from school, make dinner, baths, etc.  Yikes!

I wanted to post 2 pictures before I cat nap.  First, several of you wanted to see my mom with her quilt; she loved it - here she is...

mom with her quilt

Second, I just had to snap a picture of my mom's enormously fat cat, Grace.  My mom has talent for many things, and one of them is fattening up kitties!

Grace with the 1st quilt I made my mom

Alas, I was sad to leave Florida, but I am happy to be home.  I can't wait to see the kids tonight.  But until then, zzzzz.

Winner, winner, chicken dinner

Over the holidays there seemed to be 101 giveaways going on.  And as someone new to the blogging world, I was tempted to enter all but 2 of them.  More remarkable is that I actually won one!  In all my "Road to California" and trip to Mom's house excitement, I forgot to tell you about it.

Here are some cool threads I won from Patsy Thompson .  They appear to be some leftovers from some of her projects, which are beautiful!!!  And hey!  One quilter's trash is another quilter's treasure!  I plan on playing with these throughout the free motion challenge.

Last Day with Mom

It's been a lovely visit, though short, and it is time to go home tomorrow.  My mom loved her quilt, and the surprise visit was a hit!  I will post pictures of her and her quilt as soon as I get home.

I also had a surprise; yesterday we were able to attend a local quilt show!  I had no idea when I planned my trip that it was going on this weekend, but how neat to see what the local scene is like!  Unfortunately, despite buying a handful of raffle tickets, I didn't win a thing.  Oh well, I guess my luck ran out just being able to attend the unexpected show.   I will write more about my observations of the show later when I have more time.

Right now I am supposed to be helping my 87 year old grandma set up her new blog!  I told her how much fun I was having doing mine and she wanted one of her own.  Grandma is a literary buff and her blog will focus on writing stories and reading interesting books, and just being creative with words.  I'm hoping she will have her first post up soon.  If you are interested.....her blog site is Tell me a story

Best laid plans

Here I am, more than 32,000 feet above somewhere in Georgia, on my way to Florida to have a surprise visit with my Mom and Grandma and deliver a quilt that is taking up more than half of my suitcase! Thank goodness for wifi!

My original plan was to take the first flight out of Los Angeles so I could arrive at dinner time in Florida and really surprise my mom. My Grandma is in on the fun and told her that she had invited a guest (presumably from her writers group) to join them. Well, best laid plans are sure to go awry! My stopover on Atlanta was lengthened due to some mechanical issues. I will now be lucky to make it there in time for bed. Oh well!

At least with the inflight wifi I can catch up on all the other bloggers out there. I missed a lot the last few days! I just have to keep away from the online fabric shops and avoid shopping all the way to Florida!

Lessons Learned from the peacocks

I've created a page on my blog so that others can learn from my mistakes.  This is a copy of the first feature:  PLEASE! Learn from my mistakes.  Below are some "nothing held back" photos and comments of quilts I have made and the lessons I have learned from them.  My first quilt teacher told me that you should never point out your mistakes other people because they would probably never notice them anyway.  And while that might be true, I don't think it fits with my blog.  Someone out there can learn from the following.  I am certain of it!

First some universals

1) If your machine is making a funny noise, either something has gone wrong or it's about to, including but not limited to: a rat's nest made by your bobbin, a broken needle or one that is about to break, your foot is coming loose, your needle is coming loose, your top thread has somehow gotten tangled around the cat's tail and the two are locked in a winner takes all game of tug-o-war which won't be pretty.

2) The needle down function of your sewing machine can be your best friend!  I don't know how many times I've saved myself, not only when quilting, but even with piecing.  The fabric doesn't move until you are ready for it to move.  This includes when the cat has decided to rearrange your quilt by pushing it off the sewing table, or when the kids want to "look" at what you've been working on.

3) Piecing your backs is a great way to practice and add interest - BUT, don't make the blocks too small, or it will take FOREVER to finish your back - maybe longer than the top took.

The peacock quilt

1) I love to piece my backs, see above.  Did I learn the lesson not to piece too small the first time I did it?  NO!  I had all these lovely little crumbs left over from the flying geese that were just begging to be incorporated somehow into the back.  Thus, these pinwheels were born.

I added them with some bigger pieces for the back so the back didn't take too long to come together. HOWEVER,  I didn't press the seams open.  I despise pressing seams open and I really didn't think much of it until I got to the quilting portion of the quiltmaking.... and there ended up being LUMPS in parts of the quilt.  Nice.  I hope my mother will forgive me.

2) I used spray baste - I am shaking my head as I type this.  I have used it for baby quilts or smaller projects in the past without issue, but given the size of this one and the fact that I lacked 3 friends to help me with the sandwiching, I had trouble with it.

Problem A - I tried 4 times to get my back on straight, and it just wouldn't cooperate. So, it is a little crooked, which you can see at the bottom edges.

And since I actually started with a square back, that extra fabric hid itself somewhere in the middle and I have a few places where the quilting shows puckering and pleating.

Problem B - I mentioned I had trouble smoothing out the quilt.  Just when I thought I got it smooth, started the quilting process and got a fair way through it before I realized that some of my seams, especially the long ones of the border had actually flipped to the other side (probably from me repositioning the fabric in my attempts to smooth it).

So instead of flipping my in-the-ditch quilting back and forth, I just stayed on the side it was supposed to be on, and hope that with multiple washings that you won't be able to see it.

3) I wanted feathers on the border, but couldn't even draw them correctly.  And of course, I wanted them to be consistent, so I decided to print out my feather pattern on foundation paper.  The week before I attempted this I took a class in paper piecing from Carol Doak and she educated us in how hard it was to find proper foundation paper.  You want one that is sturdy enough to print on, be sewn through and still give stability, but one weak enough to tear apart when removing and not pull out your seams.  Well, I had purchased some paper before the class (NOT Carol's brand) and I figured I would give it a try.  Evidently, I did not choose the right paper!  It did not release as I hoped.  In addition to have some bits of paper that hung around until that first washing, I also managed to pull some of the stitching out of a few areas and actually had to go back and "reinforce" those areas with additional stitching.

There were some benefits to using the paper: a) I was able to achieve some consistency in the feathers, b) I was able to print multiple papers and  easily space them according to the length of each border, c) I built muscle memory over the course of the quilting (I might even be able to draw a feather now).  However, there were some drawbacks to this method of quilting: a) the paper makes it hard to gauge stitch length (I found myself stitching much smaller than I would like), b) it is also hard to see tension issues, especially on top, c) because my paper did not release easily, it actually took me as long to pull all the paper off as it took me to quilt some of the borders, plus I had a big mess of all that paper.

To try next time: piercing my paper with an empty needle, then using marking powder to get the image on the quilt.

4) I usually bind by hand.  It was how I was taught in my first class and I like the look.  BUT, it takes forever sometimes.  I was running low on time with this quilt, so when it came time to bind it, I couldn't help but try out machine binding.  After all, it was supposed to be faster (and it was!).  I watched a few You Tube videos, and I went for it.  One of the benefits mentioned in a few of the videos is that you can actually use some of those decorative stitches that your machine has - well, if I was going to try out the method, I was really going to give it 100%!  So I picked a stitch, and gave it a go.  I am 85% sure that the stitch is supposed to straddle the edge of the binding, but I actually liked the way it looked away from the edge a bit.  Picture 2 below is the stitch line I am supposed to be covering, but once I was reasonably sure that it was anchoring enough, I continued around the edge.  Here is how it turned out.

5) Thread for quilting - I am still building my quilting skills, as such, there are some things I feel more confident about than others.  If I am doing something I am confident about, I feel it is ok to choose a thread that will really stand out and be seen.  Whereas, if I am less confident with what I am doing, I choose a thread that will blend into the fabric.  On this quilt, I felt confident doing the scallop-like shapes in the blocks, so I chose a variegated thread with some sheen.  I felt a whole lot less confident when it came to the feathers on the border, so I chose a navy thread that you can barely see.

thread color can be seen

thread color blends

One other tidbit about thread: I learned in the long arm class by Dawn Cavanaugh recently that you will have fewer tension problems if you use the same thread in both your top spool and bobbin.  Tension is basically a tug of war, and if one thread is stronger than the other, it can cause problems.  Using the same thread doesn't always give you the look you are going for, but when possible, this trick might just save you some headaches!

I am sure there were a few more things I learned from this quilt, but I must not have written them down.  Until the next quilt...

First finish of 2012!

I feel like I've been working on this thing every possible minute for the whole month!  Considering I started with a sandwich that was partially quilted at the beginning of the month, it makes me wonder if I'll ever finish any of my other UFO's!

you can sort of see the feathers in the border

view from the back corner

That gold peacock feather is actually my label.  It reads "Mom, Perfection is overrated. Learning from your mistakes is not.  This quilt is FAR from perfect, but I learned a lot making it.  I hope you enjoy it. JL 2012".

I did learn a lot making this quilt.  Many things were Newbie mistakes.  So I have started a whole new page dedicated to things I have learned.  This happens to be the first quilt featured on the page, but I'm sure there will be plenty more in the future (I seem to have enough "duh" moments to share for a lifetime!).  I have also set a copy of the page to be posted in the blog tomorrow since I will be spending the day traveling to personally deliver this quilt to my mom!  Shhh! Don't tell, it's a surprise visit!