New Birds with Green

 

I've got a green quilt on the back of the couch for April, but I need a green quilt for the table, so I thought I would make birds on a light green background. Here is the first one.

Here is the second one.

Here's the third.

Here is the fourth one. This one wanted long legs.

Birds are pretty easy to make and are a lot of fun. If you want to make some, you can get my tutorial here, at my Etsy shop. It's an instant download so you can get started right away.

Amethyst Almost Flimsy

 

Here is a detail of the purple Amethyst quilt. I thought you might like to see some of the fabrics.

Here is the almost flimsy. I say almost because I plan to add a 6" border of dark purple all around, and the fabric hasn't arrived yet.

I went shopping at Home Goods for potholders (because I had a gift card). I didn't see any potholders I liked, so I got this wreath for my front door instead. When I got to the register the gal said, "I just put those out this morning!" Lucky me!

I'm eager for the weather to warm up enough so I can work outside in the yard, cleaning it up for the new year and getting things looking good. I'm planning a small vegetable garden - green beans, cucumbers, zucchini and some peppers, the usual herbs and lettuces and a sunflower or two. I bought a smallish raised bed planter last year and put chives in it. They are coming back nicely and yesterday I planted some Arugula, Spinach and Leaf lettuces. We'll see how they do.

I love Tony Hillerman's detective novels set in Navajo country in the Southwest. I've read them all, and am in the process of re-reading them. They have a wonderful sense of place and his main protagonist, Joe Leaphorn is thoughtful and conscientious. Also in the books are Jim Chee and Bernadette Manuelito. After Hillerman died his daughter Anne has taken up the characters and the locale and the stories continue. Anne's books focus on Bernadette Manuelito, also a Navajo cop, who is by now married to Jim Chee. The "legendary lieutenant" (Leaphorn) has now retired, but offers his expertise in this new series of books. 

Some of the original Leaphorn books have been made into a television series called Dark Winds. I am not a fan. That they have deviated from the original storylines somewhat doesn't bother me as much as what the TV series has done to Leaphorn himself. They made him do something the original Leaphorn would NEVER have done, and it really bothers me. I'll watch the series because I'm too far along and I want to see how the TV version resolves itself, but I won't watch another one.

Webbing the Purple Quilt

 

I  got most of the HST blocks up on the design wall and then worked on fine tuning the layout, one quarter at a time.

I'm webbing the quilt together, one quarter at a time too.

I have a love-hate relationship with webbing a quilt together.

Here the bottom half of the quilt is sewn together, I am in the process of sewing up the upper left quadrant and I have to fine tune the design of the upper right section. This quilt will have a wide border (I think), and the name of it might be Amethyst, unless I can come up with something better.

More Purples

 

My light purple fabrics came in. 

I ran them through the washer and dryer and made new HSTs.

I started putting the purple HSTs on the wall.

Now I have to tell you, this just wasn't floating my boat. I don't know if it was because I'm still feeling tired from my collision with the pavement two weeks ago, or that purple just isn't my jam. 

I went online and did a search of quilts made from HSTs and got an idea. I rearranged my HSTs, and this gets me worked up. I like this and will have a lot of fun playing with it.

Scrap Slab Triangles

 

My lavender fabrics are due to arrive on Friday and I have to do something in the studio while I wait, so I went through my bin of scrap slab triangles and got this up on the design wall. This is far too predictable, and I will definitely tinker with it. 

Noel Banner Sample

 I'll be teaching a two-day class later this summer to make a small Noel banner. The sample quilt I made is 30" x 40", includes birds, trees and the letters NOEL. I've blogged about making the elements of the quilt here.

It has been quilted in a lovely holiday design, and is ready for me to add the binding and the hanging sleeve.

Here's the hanging sleeve. I always make sure all elements work together. This fabric choice for the hanging sleeve is no accident.

Regular readers know I sew my binding to the BACK of the quilt, and then fold it over and hand stitch

it on the front.

After I sew the binding, I have to sew the hanging sleeve to the quilt. I find this the hardest thing to do because it is a lot of material to hold in my hand. And of course I am paranoid about my stitches showing on the front of the quilt. So I check every few stitches.

Here it is all finished.

Update

 I was pretty sore the first part of this week. I went out and did an errand Tuesday morning, and was really sore when I got home. I was so sore on Wednesday that I never got dressed, and spent the day mostly sacked out on the couch. My ribs were incredibly sore and it really hurt to yawn and sneeze.

Thursday I got up still sore and decided to take a soak in my big tub. That made a heck of a difference, and I think it was a big turning point, as I began to feel almost normal after that.

I trimmed all the blocks I made.

I put the blocks up on the design wall pretty randomly. 

The blocks that are tilted at an angle are going to go. They stick out too much and they don't "read" as purple or I just don't like them. This is quilt is the kind of quilt that pretty much can succeed no matter where I put the blocks.

.

When I put the light fabric above next to blues, it looks purplish, but when it is next to the other purples, it looks too blue, not purple, so it's going.

I just don't like the way this block looks in the quilt. It doesn't really feel purple, so it is going too.  I have placed an order for some light purple/lavender fabrics. So I will be waiting for those to come in before I go farther with this.

I have something else I'm working on, and I'll show you that later.

I'm due for a new set of glasses since I have a new prescription. You know I like frames that are different. I am old enough that I can do whatever the hell I want, so I am getting pink glasses. They will be ready in a couple of weeks.

A Good Day

 The first part of Saturday was terrific. I went to Night Owl Quilting Studio, my LQS, which had a whole lineup of demos and games. It was great fun, but I forgot to take pictures. 

I bought this thread cutter, which has now become my favorite quilting gadget. 

Although I have been resting since my fall on Saturday, I have been doing a bit of sewing. These are the HST's that are ready to go.

These are the HST's that I have yet to trim.

I have 73 unique fabric pair combinations. Here they are on the design wall. Some may work better than others, but I can't tell unless I see them all together.

The fabric for the backing has arrived and is currently making the trip through the washer and dryer. I think this quilt is going to be good.

Although a fall doesn't sound like a big deal, if you are a bit older, like I am, and you smack your head and  some ribs, you are considered to have suffered a trauma, and you have to take it easy. I don't have my usual energy. I've been taking it easy and taking naps. At my age my body will need more time to recover, so I'm not trying to hurry anything along.

Rough Day

 We all have good days, and sometimes we have bad days. Sometimes we have both. On Saturday I had both in the same day. The good stuff, I will write about later, but I'm going to start with the bad part, and you'll figure out why as you read. It's basically a cautionary tale.

Saturday was National Quilting Day and I spent the morning having fun at the Night Owl Quilting Studio. That was ALL GOOD.

My car was parked a block away, and down a side street. I waited for an SUV with a storage container attached to the roof drive past before I attempted to cross the street at a crosswalk. Now, it's March in New England. The ground is thawing and this causes the pavement to buckle and break. We call them frost heaves. They create potholes, and uneven pavement.

You can see where this is going.

Alas, I did not.

I tripped and fell face first into the (very fortunately rarely traveled) side street. I watched as the pavement got closer. I fell with both my palms flat on the street, but that did not stop my head from hitting the pavement. Somehow I also fell against my side.

I was startled, to say the least. I rolled over onto my back and tried to get my bearings. I looked over and realized I was in the street. I sat up. The young woman driving the SUV had turned around, parked and came toward me. "Are you OK? Are you hurt?"

I had a lump on my head just above my eyebrow.

My left side hurt like hell. I had abrasions on both palms and the ball of my right palm was bruised. My glasses were scratched.

I looked up at the young woman. "I think I'm OK. Can you help me get up?" She took my hands and pulled. That was when I realized my feet were twisted underneath me. We paused, I shifted and then I was upright. I collected my purse and shopping bag. (Or maybe she did.)

"Are you OK," she asked again. I nodded. "Are you sure?" Yeah. I nodded. She wasn't convinced. In retrospect, I should have rested a bit, but I was in shock (I think) so I gathered my stuff and headed toward my car.

At home, I got my lunch ready, and took two Advil, then called my DIL to wish her a Happy Birthday. After the greetings were exchanged, I told her (and my son and DGD, they were on speakerphone) about my tumble. I knew I had to tell somebody. Obviously they were very concerned.

I reviewed my injuries. I didn't have a headache, I hadn't lost consciousness. I could take a deep breath without excruciating pain (meaning no cracked or broken ribs). All my fingers wiggled just fine without pain, and aside from being sore I was OK. We talked some more and they signed off. I went into the studio to work on the purple quilt.

A few hours later my son sent a text. I balked. So I called my friend, and after a brief discussion, I decided to head to Urgent Care. By this time I five hours had passed.

At Urgent Care, a nurse called me over. The short story was they didn't see any point in seeing me. "After the age of 65, any fall with a head injury; the standard procedure is to get a head scan. We can't do that here, so you should go to the ER. Even if we do see you, he's going to recommend you go to the ER and get a head scan." I hesitated. Saturday night at a the busiest ER in the state. Yuk. The nurse sensed my hesitation. "At your age, with your injury, they won't keep you waiting long." (Remember I'm 70.)

OK. I left and started to drive to the hospital, then decided to call my mother to tell her. She suggested I drive to her house and go to the ER with Mike (her boyfriend.)

I got to the ER about 7:30. By 8:15 I had been checked in. At 9:00 I was brought into Intermediate Care. About forty minutes later I saw a doctor. We reviewed my injuries. He wanted to make sure I didn't have any glass in my eye. (I didn't.) 

Did my back hurt? No

Did it hurt if I moved my head side to side? No

Was I nauseous? No

Did I have or had I had a headache? No

He asked me some other questions. All my answers were negative.

"I don't think you cracked or broke a rib (yes, he checked). I don't think you need a head scan.

"BUT! If you wake up in the middle of the night in pain and dizzy and nauseous, you have to come back here and get a head scan." (Translation: you shouldn't be alone overnight.) He had to go get something and he'd let me think. I called my mom. "Oh, no, no, no. Get the head scan. Know for sure. Then if you are OK, you can go home and sleep in your own bed." (We had already decided that if I was to go home that Mike was driving me and I could collect my car the next day.)

The CAT scan took 5 minutes. I'd have to wait 45 to get the results.

The results were negative. My head was fine.

So at 10:40 I was waiting for Mike to come pick me up. I hadn't had dinner, so I asked him to bring me to McDonald's where I grabbed a filet-of-fish and some fries. I was home by midnight and slept in my own bed.

The next morning I got up and made breakfast. Mike called at 9, picked me up, and we went to his house where I collected my car and drove home.

Turns out the head scan isn't 100% proof I was OK. I would be 100% OK when 24 hours had passed after my fall and I had none of the scary symptoms. 

24 hours later I was fine, and in fact, headed to bed for a nap and to rest my aging, stiff, sore body. I slept three and a half hours.

SO: Moral of the story is....

We're getting old, ladies. Watch your step, particularly out of doors where the pavement might be uneven and tripping hazards are plentiful. In many ways, I was very lucky.

Because I wanted to end with something happy, here is a photo of my granddaughter flying a kite I sent her. That's my son checking it out. The kite cost me eight bucks on Amazon, so for very short money they got to have a good time, and I got to see.

National Quilting Day

 

It's kind of annoying when that AWFUL TASK you were putting off for so long turns out to be easier than you thought, and took much less time than you expected.

Such it was with my taxes. Instead of the ordeal I expected, it only took an hour and was relatively painless. I had, however, made sure to have all the documents and information I needed nearby.

Oh well.

That meant I could go into the studio and play with purple. My finished HST's will be 3" so I knew I needed 480 of them. Since I could get 8 HST's out of one square of fabric (above) I calculated I'd need 60 squares. I had 20 dark purples, so that part was easy. (3 of each). I didn't have so much light purplish fabrics, so I scoured my stash and did what I could to get the right number of light squares. I got them all cut out pretty easily. 

Then I paired them up, which you can see in the photo above. I didn't want any group of 8 HST's to be duplicated. No problem there.

Then I mated them and drew the cutting lines on them and clipped them together. I grabbed a random stack and sewed and cut triangles.

This is a sampling. I got them all pressed, but only trimmed one of each,

because I was eager to see them on the design wall. 

Oh yeah, I think this is gonna be good.

I have work to do before I can design the quilt in earnest, but that's OK. I can trim these blocks while I "watch" television.

I won't be doing much of that today, though. I'll be celebrating National Quilting Day at my LQS, the Night Owl Quilting Studio. They have a whole slate of events planned so I will be there having some fun.

Purple Plan

 You all know that I don't start any quilt unless I kinda sorta know where I am going to go with it, and I don't work on more than one quilt at a time. With the Carnelian quilt done and its backing ready, it was time to start thinking about the next quilt, the purple one.

Just like I had never made an all Orange quilt, I have also never made an all purple one. So a few weeks ago I ordered a stack of purple fabrics. I ran them through the washer and dryer and pressed and folded them all, but I had no idea what I was going to do with them. I did know I wanted to do something I had never done before.

Turns out the inspiration for the quilt lt was living on the back of my couch. That is the Partly Sunny quilt. It has quite a story. Julie designed the top, had second thoughts, redesigned it, sewed it together and then had third thoughts. It languished in her studio for almost a year. It took me that long to get up the nerve to tell her I liked her original design much better and that I really, Really, REALLY liked it. It got to be quite a joke between us. After many months of good natured ribbing, Julie sent me the flimsy and I added the wide border and had it quilted and finished it.

ANYWAY... I thought, HST's! What an idea!

I know that a lot of quilters use AccuCut to cut HST's, but I do not have one, and I knew there are spiffy ways to make multiple HST's so I searched the internet to find some. Naturally, that was easy as pie.

I found a nifty way to make 8 of them at once. After I tested the technique, I started cutting my fabrics.

Here are the light purples. My HST's will be light and dark. I have about 20 - 24 darks and 15 lights I will use. I have some others that are a bit too dark to be light, and some that are a bit too busy. Some of these might push the envelope, but I don't want a humdrum quilt, so we'll see.

Now I might be a few more days before I get to blogging again because I have to do my taxes and we all know how much fun that is.

by the way, this is the jigsaw puzzle I'm working one. QUITE a challenge, this!

Backing for the Carnelian Quilt

It turns out I had a great piece of orangy-ish backing in my stash. I don't know when I got it, or what I got it for. Problem is, it isn't big enough for the backing, because I need six extra inches on all four sides.

I sewed a long strips of leftover blocks together. I would use that to make the backing wider, but that wouldn't be enough. I decided to cut 12" across the backing strip along the bottom, add some extra orange fabric to it, and sew it to one side of the backing, then I'd insert the strip of blocks into the backing.

I often forget to use my great big dining room table as a work surface, but I put it to good use trimming the backing fabric. Before I could sew something to the side, I had to trim it straight. A great big long table is really useful here.

Then I sewed my extra strips to a big chunk of the backing.

Here's what that looked like. Lastly, I sewed the other piece of backing to the other side of the pieced blocks.

Before I bring any quilt to the long-arm quilter, I always lay the quilt on top of the backing so I can make sure the backing is big enough. 

It's big enough, and I think this is going to be terrific!