Finish-it-Up Friday - and TGIF

TGIF - in this case it has a dual meaning.  Not only Thank God It`s Friday, but also Thank God It’s Finished.

Being retired, my schedule does not include an outside-the-home job. However, I do have a very busy Etsy shop, plus it’s tax season (meaning I had to install new tax software AND update my iMac to the latest operating system, then update myriad other programs....), and endless errands, appointments, and - stitching and sewing. I try to schedule sewing time in every single day. But that does`t always happen.  Sound familiar?

Anyway, this is the quilt for my son Shane that I finished several days ago.  He wanted bold and graphic, fairly masculine colors.   The finished size is about 55x70 inches - a nice lap quilt. It is one of my goals for the 2015 Finish Along that I blogged about here.

The backing is scrappy.  I used some of the leftover fabrics, a yard of Katarina Roccella Spirodraft from her Indelible line (LOVE it!) and assorted other texty and coordinating bits. Honestly, I like the back as much as the front (if not more).    :-)

Among other projects, I am now working on a quilt for my DGS. Should have a progress report next week.

I’m linking up to Crazy Mom Quilts and her Finish it Up Friday.

2015 Finish Along, Quarter 1 Goals

This year I plan to focus more on my stitching (sewing, quilting and hand embroidery) than I have in past years. I just feel the need to hunker down and create.  Except for family, my other activities will take a back seat. In addition to creating new quilts/clothes, etc as needed for gifts, I am also going to focus on UFOs from previous years.

To help me organize myself and stick to some sort of schedule, I have joined Adrianne of On the Windy Side in her 2015 Finish Along.  I truly believe that declaring goals and being accountable for them online helps us take the steps that eventually lead to reaching those goals. At least it does for me.  :-)

So, these are my goals for Quarter One of 2015:

HST Quilt for Shane

 As you can see, the quilt top is already pieced. Actually, the backing is also pieced (it’s very scrappy) and the quilt is now basted and ready to quilt. I am thinking I will just quilt diagonal lines in some fashion and hopefully start it today or tomorrow. The goal is to have this one finished over the weekend. This quilt is for my son Shane (an adult) who paints with oil paints. The feature fabric is Paint Pallette from Draw Near by J. Wecker Frisch.  Shane  wanted geometric and bold/bright.

Birch Trees for Easton

My grandson Easton will turn 16 at the end of this month. Naturally, he is all about getting his driver’s license and other teenage things. But Easton is also a nature lover and a sweet, loving young man who appreciates family and special things. At Christmastime we sat down together and he was excited to pick out the pattern and colors for a quilt. I had narrowed choices down to about a dozen patterns and a dozen possible colorways, and these are the ones he chose. Very masculine and outdoorsy. And I had already bought the pattern (Bright Birch Trees by Amanda Jean Nyberg), so we were totally on the same page. The Kona Cottons I bought from Canton Village Quilt Works when they had their 25% off sale at year end. The backing will be that wonderful Carolyn Friedlander Etched Trees in charcoal from her Botanics line. I am excited to begin on this quilt as soon as I finish Shane`s.

Bruce’s Banjo Lap Quilt

My DH Bruce has been waiting patiently for me to make him a quilt. When I saw the above banjo fabric (Suzy Ultman, Jazz Between Friends for Robert Kaufmann), I knew it was the one. He loves bright colors and picked the Pow-Wow pattern by Allison at Cluck Cluck Sew, which I thought was a great choice to show off the fabric colors. The backing will be the plain blue and scraps of anything else left over.  :-)  I originally hoped to have this done by Valentine`s Day, but maybe end of February is more realistic. We shall see!

Crazy for Needlepoint

My final project/goal for the first quarter is to finish up this UFO from 2012.  I have two 8” squares left to embellish (bottom right) with crazy quilt embroidery. And actually, both of those remaining two squares are already started. Then I will square up my blocks and sew them together and to the vintage needlepoint flower centerpiece. After that (or maybe before that), I need to figure out how to stabilize that needlepoint piece to give it proper support.  It is relatively heavy for its size. Finally, I’ll back and bind it and add a hanging sleeve. But the interior construction will be key to the stability and overall appearance of the piece.

So there you have it. Three new quilts and one old UFO. I think it is do-able and a good mix of new and old. I would love to hear your thoughts, my friends. And I sure love looking at others’ goals, too. Thank you so much, Adrianne, for being our coordinator this year!

Here’s to a great 2015!!

Hugs,

Rearranging Colors. And Priorities.

Yesterday I showed you a picture of a large HST (half-square triangle) quilt I had started for my son.  As he is an artist and graphic designer and has always - since the age of 6 - painted with oils, the fabric with the artist paint colors on it was a no-brainer. However, I wanted to keep the quilt masculine, so we selected charcoal gray and a bold design off which to bounce the colors.

This was yesterday’s picture, and the more I looked at it, the less happy I was.  The paint pieces are chaotic and need to be tamed. I had originally tried the layout using the same color or fabric for each concentric circle (an orange circle, then a multi circle, then blue, etc).  That didn`t look right, and I didn`t have enough of some colors.  Then after taking the picture below, I also noticed that one of the multi pieces is positioned sideways (second row down, just to the left of the orange).

So today I got busy and deconstructed most of it. I decided that solid colors around the central diamond would work.  That bulls-eye effect draws your eye there, and it is the most important area of the quilt. So I added a yellow HST, and the remaining pieces inside that gray circle were given over to the multi-print, all with the correct orientation. Much better.

The rest of the quilt can and will be randomized as far as solids and prints, but as long as that central part is in order, I think it will work.  There are six rows pinned up there and three more that will join them.  I hope to have this sewn up today and/or tomorrow.  It won`t be finished for 2014, but should end up being my first finish for 2015.

Thanks to my readers who have stuck with me through thick and thin this year. My posts have been sporadic, but I think I am getting my groove back. The most important thing for me this fall and winter has been to “clear my plate” of commitments and things that have been taking too much of my time.  I spent November and December hunkered down, stitching, sewing, planning my weeks, then days, just to get every last thing done. And my Etsy shop was hugely busy with special orders.  And I did it. But I do not want to repeat that.

My Etsy Shop
I am going to simplify my Etsy shop. Hand-painted lace is being phased out. I will offer white and golden-dyed lace trims and a few appliques. I have been working as a rep for a lace mill for a few months, and love working with large customers (bridal shops, clothing and lingerie makers) and large orders. More human contact, more lace, more money, fewer tiny details than selling by the piece. 

The fancy fabric packs are being phased out; I will instead concentrate on selling off my drawers of vintage fabric, both fancy and cottons (vintage sheets).  And vintage patterns. I have hundreds and need to list those.


My 2015 Plans

Going forward into 2015, I want to have more fun.  If I plan on a handmade Christmas, I will begin much earlier. My granddaughter London has started school, so there is no babysitting in the near future (although my son Ryan and his wife Kim are pregnant and will welcome Baby Flox in July 2015).  And as for my online CQ activities, I plan to take a back seat. I will not be planning any retreats. The Yahoo Groups forum is dying, and I am tired of trying to resuscitate it. We added CQI to Facebook, but there is already another thriving CQ community there, and I wonder if it is necessary to re-create the wheel?  Besides, running an online group is a giant time suck, and few realize the work and effort it takes if you are organizing activities, challenges, etc.  That’s not what I want to continue to do with my time. So, I will be stepping back into the shadows as far as crazy quilting.  But I do have 2-3 projects that will go on my 2015 calendar to finish.

And then there is the sewing and quilting.  I have joined the Rainbow Scrap Challenge, and in between making quilts for family members, I will make blocks here and there that will eventually come together in scrappy quilts.  I want to sew more clothes. Spend more time in the garden. Take more walks.

Times are changing, and so am I. So are my interests. But I will always be Crazy. By Design.

Hugs,

Eight Months Later. . .

This post could be subtitled “How I Spent My Summer” (and spring and fall. . . ), but hey. Life gets in the way. And it has been a great ride these last few months. . .   :-)

So, let`s do a whirlwind recap of what has been going on.

I think I last showed a picture/teaser of this pile of fabric.  It has since been made into a block and published in a calendar. Specifically, Pam Kellogg of Kitty and Me Designs asked me to do the block for the 2015 calendar that accompanies her quarterly publication, Crazy Quilting Quarterly (to begin in Feburary of 2015).

From scraps. . . 

. . . to naked block. . .

. . to embellished block for June, 2015 calendar

Pam assigned me the month of June, with colors of pink and aqua (which I changed to blue) and a Marie Antoinette theme (which I changed to just 18th century French). I was able to use a lot of golden-dyed laces from my Etsy shop (link in sidebar).  Pastel blue and pink are not normally colors I work with, but I really enjoyed the creative stretch.  (Now, what should I do with the finished block??)

* * * * * * * * * * * * *

I also did a baby quilt for my daughter’s longtime friend, Riley, who had a cute baby girl last summer.

Baby quilt for Marlee

Beginning in early spring, my cousins (actually, Bruce`s nieces, who are my age, but it is easier to call ourselves cousins) and I began having regular sewing sessions at our place every Sunday. During the nice weather, we ate out on the patio and watched as the garden went from dirt, to raised planter boxes filled with dirt, fertilizer and seeds, to sprouting vegetables to a monster garden of tasty delights. Then back again to dead/dying plants that were dug up, mulched, etc. etc.

Before. Sorry, there are no “After” pics, LOL!

In my Etsy shop this spring, things were booming, so I hired my friend and neighbor, Mary, to help me for 10-12 hours per week.  Together we dyed and painted lace, ironed lace, shopped for and cut fabric into fabric packs. Mary took up a lot of the photography, which allowed me more time for listing and working on bookkeeping. I also now am a rep for a family-owned lace embroidery mill on the east coast, and have three large-ish customers who buy laces in bulk directly from me. They are a wedding store, an Australian bridal designer, and a lingerie company. Since school has started, Mary`s hours are fewer, but we still get together once or twice a week to catch up on all the “work” (too much fun to be called that) of running an Etsy business.

And here are sneak peeks of three quilts I have been working on.  My next post will show the finished sea-themed quilt and talk about that.  The cream-on-cream CQ is a private commission that I will publish after it is given to the recipient after Christmas.  The third one is a quilt for my son, Shane that I will finish later this month.

Top half of “Saltwater Wedding” quilt (pieced top)

Early progress on private commission crazy quilt

Testing a layout on quilt for son Shane. Design board was in use!

I plan to begin posting more regularly, with a shift toward regular quilting projects and sewing. I will still be crazy quilting, too, but for the foreseeable future will be primarily finishing UFOs (unfinished objects) and projects that have languished.

Watch for my Saltwater Wedding quilt post!

Hugs,