Gentleman's Fancy Block Progress!

We ended up with about 5 inches of snow yesterday & I made it home from my errands with minutes to spare before the first round of heavy stuff started coming down.  The DH was not as lucky as he dawdled and delayed starting his errands early. As I was busy in the studio, I wasn't paying close attention to how long he had been gone at first. Then I got concerned because the snow was getting heavier and he had been out over 2 hours. Thankfully he appeared about 10 minutes after I called his phone (got voice mail), relaying the fact that it was whiteout conditions on the roads and he should have gone out earlier, like I had said. DUH!! 

I was warm, dry & sewing and I made some progress on the Gentleman's Fancy blocks for the Daring Downton Debacle challenge row quilt!!  

These are the center sections of all five blocks. The color progression will be better once I add the outer sections to each center. Falling under the heading of 'Never leaving well enough alone', I added some extra (Really??!!) pieces to the middle so the center cream square wouldn't be as big as it was in the test block.

Notice how small the new 'C' piece is in my version of the block.

On the left is the regular Gentleman's Fancy block. On the right, my changes are shown in red. I added the corner HSTs so it related better to the Royal Cross blocks I made for the first row.  The additions to the center added 8 more pieces to each block, bringing the block piece count to 49!

I'll be back at it again today - I have to piece the outer sections, join them to each center, sew the blocks to each other & the row will be done! I imagine the dogs will be keeping me company as the day is sunny & bright, meaning a great studio sunspot to snooze in.  On the TV will be the result on my snowy errands yesterday.

It was actually on the shelf at our library!  Amazing!! I know I am a latecomer to the Downton Abbey audience but I enjoy being able to watch the episodes/seasons all at once rather than having to wait and then wrangle control of the Big TV from the husband.

After the blocks are sewn together, there are some silks hanging around the cutting table. Maybe today or maybe tomorrow for those...

Happy President's Day!

Here comes the snow!   

We are forecasted to get between 6-8 inches today with the possibility of Thunder Snow. Thunder snow is exactly what it sounds like - a thunder storm while snowing producing snowfall rates of 2-3 inches an hour. I need to make a quick run to the store this morning for a few things that I should have picked up yesterday when I was out but didn't.

After that I can get into my studio.  There is a new sewing plan for the DDD row quilt in place for today.  Wait - what happened to the plan from the other day? Well... this is what my sewing table looked like on Saturday.

Nope - no sewing machine in sight. That is a kitchen cabinet that was taken out of the kitchen about this time last year.  It's been hanging around the garage, waiting to find it's new purpose in life. It is going to have a spot in my studio, replacing the microwave cart.  But first it needed to have wheels installed which is why it's on my sewing table.

The microwave cart is now living in the laundry room, proving storage and a folding surface. The DH removed the previous clothes hanging pole unit in the laundry room, replacing it with a simple pole mounted on brackets much higher up on the wall.  I can reach the hangers - if I stretch or stand on tip toes.  He did check the height with me.  I choose to use this as additional exercise in my day.  The old clothes hanging pole unit is going into the garage, where the old kitchen cabinet was, for odd coats and jackets.  

Ziggy checking out the new laundry room arrangement

It's like a big ongoing chain of switching items around, finding new purposes and refining storage solutions.  I got all of the rags, extra towels and blankets into the microwave cart. And then I moved onto my new cabinet.

The top fits three, yes all three, of my smaller drawer units! Which means my red roller tote slides in next to the cabinet and I turned the project drawer unit sideways, as the kitchen cabinet is much deeper than the microwave cart was.  

I didn't take a picture of the inside of the cabinet but there is actually some empty space inside! 

The paper piecing foundations have been drafted for the five Gentleman's Fancy blocks.

Here is the color plan for the row - just need to switch a few fabrics to address the blue shades.

Stay safe and warm or cool and dry where ever you are!

A Block, A Birthday and the Blahs!

Busy few days here. We'll start with the quilty bits currently underway- the Daring Downton Debacle challenge row quilt.

A Block

First the good news -  there is a new Block on the design wall! 

The bad news - I don't like it.

The block design (a variation on Gentleman's Fancy) is okay, mostly.  I thought the last block had a lot of pieces for a 9" block (29) but this one has 41 pieces. I paper pieced it, so it's easier and more accurate. What is bothering me is the color choice. 

This blue is too dark when compared with the lightest shade of green.  Even though they won't be directly next to each other, I think it will throw off the light center to dark edges progression. So, it's back to the cutting table. I'll just think of this one as the test block.  Ideally, I'll be able to complete all five blocks for this row today. We'll see

A Birthday

This little girl turned 3 years old yesterday.  

Since she was a shelter kitty, we only knew she was born in February, so we thought Valentine's Day would be a perfect birthday for a sweet little girl. The Empress of Terror really does have her quiet sweet moments.

The Blahs

As it turned out, it was a good thing we celebrated Valentine's Day on Tuesday.  The DH has been down for the count for the last couple of days.  The poor thing actually put himself to bed at 6:30 p.m. on Thursday. There are no pictures of this - it wasn't pretty and I know where to draw the line. He is doing better, not 100% but the animals are each taking turns snuggling with their Poppy on the couch sharing some healing energy.  I'm retreating to the studio today while he gets the rest he needs to get this totally out of his system.  

Oh No - Distractions, Distractions, Distractions!

Day of Distractions!

I was suppose to get together with a former co-worker for some job hunting networking yesterday but that got moved to today.  So rather than get busy in the studio right away, I ran to Walmart for a few things but got sidetracked by the library.  I did need to return a few books and while there, I discovered the hold I place at the library in the next town over had my material waiting to be picked up. ACK! So I swung over there to grab the item and then hit Walmart for the shopping.

Once home, the water softener needed the salt I just picked up and there was a load of clothes right there in the laundry room, next to the water softener, waiting to be washed. Since I was already downstairs the dogs needed to go out and once back upstairs, needed their midday pills.  So there I am in the kitchen and lo and behold - it's lunch time. Well, late lunch time and the DH is saying he'd heading out to meet a buddy. 

Great, I thought, he's gone out & I'll have the house to myself and I'll get busy at the sewing machine. BUT then I thought - he's gone out & I'll have the house to myself and control of the big TVs remote!

Remember the library hold item? It's the biggest distraction of the day...

Season One of Downton Abbey on DVD!

I figure that since I am doing the row quilt challenge using the Downton Abbey fabrics, I should at least have a passing knowledge of the series, right?  I watched the first three parts  - I'm hooked.

 Hope you accomplished the things on your list today - I'm back working on mine, hopefully without too many distractions!

Olympic Inspiration

Have you been watching the Sochi Winter Olympic Games?  DH isn't really interested in them so I haven't watched as much as I would like on the big TV but I have seen some of the slopestyle, luge and skating competitions.  More intriguing to me is the 'look' of these games. 

Patchwork - real honest to goodness patchwork. Love these banners!

Sochi games’ press release: "The Olympic patchwork quilt, developed by Bosco’s creative department and given to the Sochi 2014 Organising Committee, will be the official Look of Russia’s first Winter Games.

Our goal was to represent a diverse range of emotions and feelings, connecting concepts like Motherland, Family, Culture, Time, Olympism, Peace, Nobility, Friends, Memory, Honour, Dreams, Beauty, Freedom, Pride, Warmth, Happiness, Greatness, Reliability, Victory, Creativity, Hospitality, Creation, Future, Russia, Planet Earth.

Every region in the world is proud of its unique origins, and it is no different in Russia. That is why there are so many different local traditions, songs and crafts that highlight the individuality of their creators, each valuable in its own right. Bosco had a wealth of choices to represent Russia’s rich diversity, but in the end we settled on something familiar, warm and welcoming: the patchwork quilt.

In the concept design, every patch was infused with the history and personality of traditional crafts from each of Russia’s 89 regions: in a single tapestry we combined Uftyuzhskaya painting and Vologda lace, Gzhel and Zhostovo painting, Kubachi patterns and the flowers of Pavlo Posad shawls, Mezenskaya painting and Khokhloma, Yakutsk patterns, fabrics of Ivanovo and other distinctive Russian patterns. That is how we arrived at a modern, distinctive and unmistakably Russian Look of the Games.”

While hunkered down inside yesterday avoid the cold outside, I spent some time hop skipping around the web collecting images for my quilt research file.   I like the way the diamonds in the pattern are not all equal size and then it breaks apart into the white background.  You can see the effect on the number bibs - shown here on a member of the USA snowboarding team, who is wearing the cool muted patchwork parka designed by Burton - more patchwork!

About the Parka design from the Burton Snowboard website: "To design the uniform for the 2014 Sochi Games, Burton once again turned to America’s heritage for inspiration. And nothing represents Americana more than handcrafted patchwork quilts and the American flag, which are both at the heart of the 2014 uniform. After a long hunt, Burton designers found the perfect vintage quilt at an antique fair. Then, they brought it home to Vermont where it was deconstructed and re-constructed by a veteran Vermont quilt maker in order to get it ready to replicate onto the outerwear fabrics. Following this, Burton developed a method to print exact replicas of both the quilt and a vintage American flag onto the fabric of the jackets. The end result is that the quilt pattern on the jackets looks like it was hand-stitched with patchwork squares – just like the original. And an exact duplicate of the vintage American flag is proudly featured on the jacket’s sleeve."

While I don't have the rich printed texture fabrics in the stash, I do have the color range in my batiks.  Will this be a future quilt? Not sure but it is inspiring... 

The Case of the Missing Longjohns

Yes, my long underdrawers have been missing during this remarkable cold winter.  I looked everywhere they should have been to no avail.

Since we have the charity truck coming for a pick up today, DH & I spent part of yesterday cleaning out dressers and closets in a fit of early Spring cleaning.   Well, lo and behold the missing garment has been found - the second to last day of frigidly cold weather that is forecasted for the rest of this month!  Not entirely sure how they found their way to the very back of that dresser drawer but I am glad to have them back where they belong!  It's the small thing in life that make me happy.

Today, we are celebrating St. Valentine's Day - early.  Red Lobster is having their LobsterFest and we couldn't resist the commercials any longer.  We plan to head out for a late lunch/early dinner when it's not very busy. This will be a combination Anniversary/Valentine's Day/Birthday dinner splurge - can't wait! 

We already treated ourselves to our Valentine's Day chocolate.  I picked up fudge in 3 flavors, chocolate covered strawberries (they are HUGE), 

rum and amaretto fudge balls and milk and dark chocolate covered bacon! YUM!!!

No, we haven't eaten it all but what we did taste was awesome and indulgent!

Sewing has been put on the back burner - only some hand quilting and some design doodling done.  Need to get busy on quite a few different things but feeling a bit out of the groove. Maybe the lobster will help me get my groove back. 

It's a Finish!

It's official - it's a finished quilt!

Caribbean Solstice is done!!! 

Full quilt done - Love it!

Border detail

In the span of the three borders, a total of 6 inches finished size, there are 9 quilting passes running the length of the borders, not counting the stitching for finishing the binding.

 I did the binding a little differently than usual - I machine stitched it down. I wanted to use this quilt already so I thought I'd try it - not bad.  I cut the binding at 2.5" wide, folded it in half, pressing the crease.  I stitched it down with a 1/4" seam, folded the binding around to the back, pulling it snug. I pinned it in place, using straight pins placed in the teal border just to the left of the navy binding. I used my zipper foot with the needle set to the right of the foot to stitch it down exactly where it was pinned to make sure I was catching the binding on the back.

 I had to settle for indoor pictures for now.  There have been a lot of pictures of quilts laid on fresh snowfall that look cool but my back yard is way too small for that.

There is a lot of quilting in the center too.

I had some company in the studio while I finished up the last of the quilting and binding.  It was cold but sunny, so they wanted to lay by the door as long as I had the space heater going.

I thought I get a new piece started but that didn't happen. I do have an interim piece to start while the design gets finalized on a few other projects.  Got to keep some fabric going under the needle.