Crazy Mom Quilts Quilt Along #5 Update

I'm a bit behind in this quilt along.  I just finished Week 6.  Monday she'll post week 9 instuctions.  Oh well.  I'm having a good time.  It is a really intense quilt to work on. It's been a bit difficult, all the segments pieced together end up being longer than the sashing strips, so I've learned a few things.

1. starch is a good thing. by starching the crud out of the segmented strips, they don't stretch as much.
2. an accurate 1/4" is totally important.  mine are pretty good, with only a couple in each strip that aren't accurate, but every 1/8" adds up.
3. not a project to work on when the kids are awake.  nope.  can't concentrate at all.

It is going to a great looking quilt when it's done.  I love the bright colors and the white.

Quilt Completion!

Done done done!  I finished the baby girl quilts for my twin nieces.  I only have pictures of one, my sis snagged the other one as soon as it was done.   They are the same though, so use your imagination.  :)

Stats:

fabric - hushabye by tula pink

pattern - flutterby by debbie mumm

quilting - icepurplepenguin on etsy

What a Weekend!

Whew!  I am so glad the weekend's over.  Wow!  Picked up my machine from the shop Friday afternoon.  Apparently it had a bind.  So, for $40 he cleared the bind.  He did comment that it looked like I was using the machine quite a bit, based on the lint build-up.  He figured that I had about two more years before I would need a machine that was rated for heavier use.  Apparently the Brother ES-2000 isn't rated to be used daily for hours at a time.  :) No matter, I'm completely happy with it!

Friday evening it was just me and the kids for dinner, so I made breakfast for dinner.

Chocolate Chip Pancakes!

Saturday I worked a bit on blocks for a few bees, but no pictures yet.

Yesterday I spent the entire day canning. 

 Made 3 batches of stawberry jam, a batch of blueberry syrup, and a batch of blueberry butter.  I was hot and sweaty and sooo tired when I was done.  The blueberry butter and syrup were new recipes, and they are tasty!  The syrup is nice and thick.    The recipes came out of Complete Book of Home Preserving which is an amazing book!  I've been canning for years, my mom taught me.  This book explains the whys of all the quirks of canning as well as dispelling some myths.  I highly recommend it!

Last but not least, I heard from my friend that my sewing table is done and ready to be picked up!!!  She posted pictures, which I'm reposting here.

It looks amazing!

I provided her with the fabric for the seat cover.  Didn't she do an amazing job?

As a reminder, here's before:

Can't wait to bring it home!!

My sewing machine...

Last night at 9:58 pm my wonderful everyday sewing machine went "ker-chunk."  I stopped sewing, re-threaded everything and cleaned out all the cotton dust.  No luck.  She still functions, but she's still making the ker-chunking noise and turning the hand wheel is much harder.

This morning I packed her up and took her to my local repair shop.  I explained what was happening and he tried turning the wheel.  His only comment was "That doesn't feel right" (no, really?) No idea how long I'll be machineless.  The new one still isn't set up, and its more for industrial sewing away.

Mr. Chaos is out of town all week, leaving me with quiet evenings.

What's a girl to do?

Cutting.  I will be spending my evenings prepping and cutting everything I been putting off.  Borders, pieces, you name it, I'm gonna cut it.

On a side note, Mr Chaos was wondering around downtown Walla Walla and sent me these pictures.

I like this one best.

It's so nice to know he's thinking of me, even when he's not here. 

:)

Home Decor

So, I sew.  I quilt.  I've never done curtains or shades, cushions and stuff like that.    Last month Mr. Chaos and I were getting very tired of having our sleep disturbed as soon as the sun came up and lit up the Girls' room.  One morning our conversation, mumbled through pillows went something like this:

Me:  Arg.  They're up early again.

Mr. Chaos:  You sew. Can't you build a shade or something the sun can't shine through?

Me:  I guess...I'll have to figure it out.

Later that day I called my Mom and borrowed her book on home decorating.  Oh my.  This book was written in 1986.  There were pictures of rooms done entirely in green and red plaid.  Seriously.  Big bows.  Blech. 

But, in the technique section I found super simple instructions for making a roman shade with a blackout lining.  Another conversation.

Me:  I found directions, I'll need to go to the hardware store for some notions.

Mr. Chaos:  Notions?  at the hardware store?!?

Me:  Yeah, you know, nylon string, eye hooks, L brackets, a cleat...

Mr. Chaos: Hardware, hun.  Its called hardware.

Me:  Okay.  Does it really make a difference?

Mr. Chaos:  YES.  it does.  You do not buy notions at a hardware store.

Here's the finished product:  Sorry the pictures aren't the greatest.

open:

closed:

Now, they don't wake up with the sun.  Success.

Post Weekend

Tada!  Done.  Well, pretty close to done.  The kids and I took a side trip across town this afternoon and came home with this baby.

Yup.  A commercial straight stitch machine.  A Sundia LS2-150C.  Found it on Craigslist.  Now I can repair drops and build heavy duty stuff without praying my machine will make it.  I had to ask my brother in law to come help me take it out of the van.  I can't even lift the machine!  It's sitting in the garage 'cause I have no idea where it's gonna go.

Isn't she pretty?  The woman I bought her from threw in 30 cones of thread, an office chair, a garbage sack full of fabric and a bunch of hangers.

Needless to say, this took a chunk of time out of my cleaning time.  I got everything done though.  Emptied my scrap basket, got everything sorted and cut. 

Of course its full again, I put in all the fabric she gave me.  Most of it is quilting weight cotton, but there's some that I have no idea on and will have to do burn tests.

But look!  The table - its clean!!!

And here, my little sewing table is still missing.  It won't be back for a couple weeks.

Yeah!!! Now a week of sewing!  What shall I work on?

Sew Bee It, July

Jennifer sent these fabrics and asked for this specific block, which according to note is" Outside the Box" from The Modern Quilt Workshop.

As much as I love being creative, I do totally have having everything planned for me.  So nice to cut and sew without thinking.  :)

Quilt Tops in Progress

I have vowed not to start anymore quilts until I finish what I've got going on.  For me, finished means top done, waiting for batting and quilting.

Crazy Mom Quilts: Quilt-a-long #5

I'm at week 5, which means technically I'm not behind, because she posts each week's step on Monday.  So I'll be behind as of tomorrow because I'm not gonna have time to do the next step today.

This one is gonna be for Muffin's bed.  It finishes at a twin size, which is perfect.  I'm using these fabrics, with an added print I didn't get a picture of.

PS I Quilt:  Pinwheel Sampler

Almost done with this one, s'matter of fact I would be done if I hadn't asked Mr. Chaos for help with the layout.  He came up with a brilliant layout, but it requires more work.  I'm at the point of adding the border, which is pieced, so it's taking me awhile.

1930's Wonky Stars
These are the blocks I recieved from my month in Sew Buzzy.

Here's my plan:

Which means I need to make 10 more 12" stars and come up with 18 6" squares of 1930s prints.

Erik Homemade: Scrap Pile Mystery Cleanup.

No pictures of this one.  It uses scraps of darks and lights with a sashing (I'm using white.)  This is my leaders and enders project.  I have no idea what it will end up looking like.  The only info I know is:

"Block size: 12 x 12-inch finished

Number of blocks: 30; 15 A-Blocks, 15 B-Blocks
Finished quilt size: (throw) exact size to be announced"

Tic-Tac-Toe Picnic Quilt

I've decided to use my winning for the block lotto to make a happy picnic quilt.  Super simple plan, I have 40 8" blocks.  It'll be 6 blocks x 6 blocks with 2" bright sashing.  Have I started on it yet?  Nope.  not yet.  I've got the fabric for the sashing, but haven't cut it yet.

Cool Braids:

I haven't touched this project since this post.  So I might not hold myself to finishing this one before I start a new quilt.

So that's six quilt tops in progess.

Now I really need to get back to cleaning up.

Sunday Morning Update

My sewing space still is a mess.  I did take my sewing table to the "salon" for its make over.  So now all the stuff that was in it is piled on the other table.  On the plus side, my scrap basket is empty, but there's a pile of fabric on the edge of my ironing board. 

I didn't get much done yesterday 'cause I was busy baking.  Mr. Chaos is heading to Walla Walla, Washington for work and I didn't want him to starve.  So I made blueberry muffins, oatmeal blueberry cookies and 2 homemade chocolate cream pies.  (I made one to stay here.)  Have you ever had homemade chocolate cream pie?  It leaves store bought in the dust and isn't that difficult to make.

He leaves in a bit, I'll finish my coffee and cocoa puffs and start cleaning.  :)

Weekend Plans

My goal for the weekend is to clean up my sewing space.  Let me show you...

It is a mess. I am a horribly messy sewer.

I shove things out of the way when I'm working on a project and forget to clean them up.
I stack stuff, thinking I'll go through it later.

Blech.
You can click on the pictures to open them, they have notes explaining some of this mess.
My plans for the weekend are to make this pretty.  My sewing area is a corner of our living space, so everyone can see all my mess, all the time.

My thinking is if I post "before" pictures and tell everyone that this is what I'm doing, I'll feel obligated to do it and show "after" pictures.

Monday I'll post pictures.  Hopefully they're of a clean, uncluttered space.

Wish me luck.

The Hive - July Blocks

Jeremy sent Arcadia honey bun strips and white stuffed in little baggies in a cardboard tube.  He had even pre-selected which fabrics went with which.  He has way to much fun with his packaging.   He wanted this specific block. It was so nice to make a block that required no creativity on my part.

Sew Buzzy - July

Muriel sent bright and cheery scraps and asked for houses.  Personally I'm not a huge fan of houses, but I do like how it turned out.

Ravishing in Red VQB July

Sara asked for any size of any kind of red stars for her month in Ravishing in Red.  The largest one is 6 1/2" is paper pieced, it's from the Quilter's Cache, it's called World Without End.  It's actually only 1/4 of a block.  The others are maverick stars and the one in the top right was a "whoops"  I sent it, but I won't feel bad at all if she doesn't use it.

"Vintage" Sewing Table

This old sewing cabinet was gifted to me years ago by my in-laws.  I think it was Mr. Chaos' grandma's, but I'm not positive.  It came complete full of vintage notions and a 1950s singer.  I sold off all the notions (this was before I started quilting) at took the machine out of the cabinet.  It's still waiting on a shelf in the garage. 

I recently realized that this table and machine would probably be great to do my quilting on.  The machine sits flush in the table, and for quilting I don't need any fancy stitches. 

Well, as luck would have it, a friend of mine just posted pictures of a great little table she had refinshed.  I sent her a message asking if she might be interested in refinishing it and she said yes.  Whoo hoo!  I HATE refinishing furniture.  And she thinks it is fun!  Crazy!

This table has been through the ringer.

The finish is peeling and flaking and scratched.

All the bits and pieces are still in place for the machine.  It even has a knee-lever you can use with the foot pedal.

The bench has seen better days!

June Bee Blocks

Wow - where did June go?  I got all my blocks completed!

Scrap Happy - Wendy sent out focus fabric - fruits - and asked for wonky log cabins.  I hope she likes them, they're not to my taste, but that seemed to be the theme this month!  :)

Sew Bee It - Vickie sent super busy Amy Butler prints and the pink background.  She wanted geese in any shape or size.  Complete no brainer on which block I would do!

Sew Buzzy - First month of the new bee.  My month!  I sent out these lovely 1930's reproduction prints, assigned everyone a color and a size and asked for wonky stars.  Loving the results!  You can check out all the great stars in our group pool on Flickr.  Totally floored by the generousity of the members, nearly everyone made more than required!

Not Your Grandmas Quilting Bee - The Hive -

Lisa sent black, white & gray and bits of red.  She wanted any kind of black and white blocks with red birds.  Since applique and I don't get along, I opted to paper piece a few birds.  The pointy bird pattern is here.  The little bird pattern is here.  They're too busy for me, but hopefully she likes them!

Bee Improvisational. - Jeremy's month. He wanted block inspired by this Oh, Fransson! post. For my first block I decided to do a what I'm calling a framed braid. I followed Bonnie Hunters pioneer braids technique at Quiltville. My braid strips were cut at 1"x 5".

For my second block I wanted to do a mini postage stamp.  I got tired of piecing all the little bits, so the white frame is bigger than I originally intended.  :)

Christmas in July - Debbie wanted this specific pattern, using these specific fabrics.  I love it when it's that easy!

Ravishing in Red Bee - New bee and I got to be first!  I sent out these and asked for a block that featured the red and also a 6 1/2" wonky star.  You can see all the red awesomeness here.

Not Your Grandmas Quilting Bee- The Bumble Bees - Kendra wanted this specific block and asked us to add bright scraps.  I was really nervous 'cause I hadn't made blocks like this before, but they turned out nice :)