A Few Days Away: Muncie, Indiana

A week or more ago I got the chance to visit Muncie, Indiana for a long weekend. I'd never been to Indiana before and I have to say everyone we met there was really lovely and very chatty, even the cop who pulled us over took us on a mini tour of the village we were in before letting us go on our way with a warning to pay more attention to stop signs and less attention to our gps when lost (duly noted, first time pulled over, fully lighted up chevy suburbans are kinda terrifying tbh). In light of recent events and laws passed in Indiana I do realise that this straight Irish couple are always going to have it easy in the getting a warm welcome department though.

Ball State University, home of the weeping angels?

I got a chance to visit Muncie's quilt shop, Cotton Candy Quilt Shoppe! They were genuinely lovely people and chatted for ages, told us lots about the area and sold me this bevy of neutral beauties. I'm collecting for the background of a quilt I'm making my parents, hopefully this year! They even invited me upstairs to join in on their class that was on, but we were in the middle of touring our way back to Indianapolis that day and I didn't have the time :(

Hard to tell, but the one in front is a Moda Grunge fabric.

I brought some handstitching for the plane and the hotel evenings (that one didn't happen, just conked straight out each night after walking the feet off myself). But the planes required entertainment, and I got this block finished!

I have this next block all ready, the final block in this batch of ten for the Farmer's Wife quilt, but I don't know how long I'm going to take to make it. I do love the colours so it's at least enticing still! I need to get back into the habit of stitching in the evenings, or find a lot of time in waiting rooms soon...

I was going to say let's time me! But let's not!! It would sap the joy. And right now I'm all about the fun in sewing :)

xx

I'll start at the start

I went to Ireland for 6 days in late February for the wedding of a longtime friend, the wedding was beautiful even if the weather was not. But the trip itself turned out to be pretty doomed for me, and my constant refrain was 'it's all uphill from here' - it is not always uphill from there it turns out. One of the hill bottoms was scalding my right thigh quite badly with a cup of freshly made herbal tea about 5 hours before my flight back to Texas. My dad was thinking and suggested the shower, I later found out that running water on the burn (not necessarily cold because over a large area you can induce hypothermia, so tepid is fine) but running it for 20 minutes can reduce scars and skin grafts (I didn't need them, still waiting to see on the scar side). It would have been good to know that before, so now you know just in case!? I really hope it never happens to you, it's truly awful. It took about 3 weeks for the wound to heal over and because Paul was travelling a lot for work in the US we delayed my flight back another couple of weeks and I got back at the start of April. That was a whole other debacle, that uphill bit again, and it's good I stayed in Ireland that long because my burn did not like having to sit around all that time in the airports and planes. But I'm here now!

These are Hovering Birds, Jackknife, and Mother's Dream!

While I was home I had three farmer's wife blocks to distract me, and I downloaded the netflix app to my phone - it didn't care if I fell asleep randomly. I got those blocks finished - woop!

The centre of the Handstitched Medallion by Stitched in Color!

Once my leg was up to having some pressure put on it again I could get out my mother's sewing machine and I pulled out a really old project, I didn't get much done in the end but I did bring it back with me to finish off - I'm quite close. The blanket stitching took a long time around these blossoms, maybe because I got a bit strange and pernickety about spacing. Too little to do, idle hands and all that.

I really like the fabrics I chose for this quilt. This was the first pattern I'd ever shopped for and it took a really long time, involved Paul, and I second guessed the whole way through. But since then I've gotten in the habit of working within designers or within lines, I'm scared of mixing things. I tried last year again and it went disastrously - I'll show you sometime, I kept all the HSTs I made in case I figure out a way to fix it. But I want to break out of that, that's a new long term goal for me.

The neon threads are unrelated, but I found them in the LQS at home!

I'm going to leave it here for now, I'll be back with the tiny bits I've been up to since I came home in a few days :)

I've missed you, sorry to have been gone so long!

Unable to Settle

I had a reminder to back-up my laptop the other day, and it also prompted me to organise my photos into folders, sorted by month. I needed this more than I knew, I had been writing myself and this year off as unproductive but it turns out I was wrong. Up to a point. And that point was late June. Yep, I fell off the productivity/sewing mojo/whatever you want to call it bandwagon at Midsummer.

Stash pull for bed runner.

Since then I've covered every available surface, the corner of the sofa, our rarely used for the actual purpose dining table, sewing table, sideboard, etc... with must start projects. I've started each of them. None of them are finished. Few of them have been picked back up beyond the first week of starting. Honestly, I've never felt like this. I don't know what I'm doing. I do know I can't force myself to finish them all, I'll end up like a toddler or teenager rebelling against the overbearing strictures of my own self. Which is too much internal strife to bother with.

Some are more important to me than others. For instance, my dad does need a hat. His hair really is falling out, he's distracting the other bridge players and it was 5°C/41°F when he got up to walk the dog last weekend. So even though I barely ever knit, I'm the world's slowest (two Christmases passed before Paul got the scarf I promised), I've never knitted in the round before (but the newly bald shouldn't have to deal with seams), and I have real trouble paying attention to which stitch I'm on, this project is a definite priority.

I've had a 5 month hiatus from the Farmer's Wife quilt. I miss it, this block is not the most fun colours of the ten I've prepped. And that was my mistake. I meant to only prep 5 at a time from now on. But the colours distracted me and I selected for ten before I knew it, and then felt compelled to cut them all out. It went swimmingly till I reached the templates. They took me two months, and stared at me accusingly from the dining table all the while (yes, we eat on our laps).

I also knocked into it scattering the nicely laid out pieces...

I still love my colourful Death Star idea. When I started I got intrigued by trying to make my stitches less noticeable, so I tried some stuff. I got some good results, but finding a new stitch and then getting a rhythm with it is not easy. So I put this down again. Now I'm in two minds. Do I continue trying to make my stitches invisible, noble sure, I guess, but super time-consuming? Or do I go back to my FWQ regular whipstitch which I can bust out like nobody's business? I'll enjoy the process of the latter more, but will I feel annoyed with myself at the result, or once I'm more than a foot from the quilt will I even see the stitches if they're in a grey or matching thread? Ugh, these are the questions that have left this project sitting on a tray on couch, neglected for more than a month.

The others are all little projects, a giant cushion cover from leftover hourglass blocks, an elongated quilted cushion in Echino as a draught excluder, and a stash pulled bundle to make a simple bed runner just like the ones I made as wedding gifts.

One final thing, I've recently taken up and have found surprisingly meditative is free motion quilting. The #dailyfmq tag appeared on instagram, set in motion by the Crafty Planner. I've only spent like 3 ten-minute chunks at it, but I've enjoyed each of them, learned something each time, and discovered it's possible to slip into a nice peaceful state while you're at it, until you get too peaceful, make a mistake and then it all goes to hell! But everyone at the hastag is so lovely and helpful, I've definitely been encouraged to keep going. Which is amazing, because I swore right off FMQ the last time I tried (February) until I had a better machine (still the same machine).

Rio Grande Valley Turtle, pattern by Melissa of My Fabric Relish

So, I do have three big quilts in the works, one approaching top completion, one approaching block completion, and one with half the top fabrics washed (not my normal game but these fabrics apparently require it - more to come!). You've already seen Texas, so no more till I have something actually finished. The other two I'll blabber about in the next few weeks as I get a chance to take photos and get them in order in my head, more than anything else.

It's going to be interesting to see what I do manage to settle to in the rest of 2014. This year has been a test for me in very many ways, and I'm eager to see how I fare coming out of it. I think I might be growing up.

A Slow Week

It's been a slow one, sewing wise, life wise. Met my new neurologist on Monday, have a change in medication, the navigation of the American health care system began, it's been confusing and surprising (in good ways, so far). The bad parts are all in the withdrawal and new side effects, sleep is being stolen from me among others, but hopefully this is the low point.

I was prepared Monday, left out some easy to piece blocks from an oft put down project, continued on them on Tuesday.

Laid out my progress, over a year so far, 14 blocks left, seeing it all out is encouraging, such lovely colours - all courtesy of Justine at Simply Solids and her Sew Solids Crew stash club last year.

Since Wednesday I've tried to push myself to get to what I really should be doing - but like any time that word, should, is involved it isn't happening. My brain is not up for altering patterns as I go, and my machine has decided that skipping stitches is so in vogue right now. I've walked away. Though I'm eyeing up a potential couple of hours of alone time on Sunday morning for a thorough machine clean and re-thread! I'm actually enthusiastic about that, another surprise.

Yesterday I gave up on the shoulds completely, and started cutting out the fabrics for my next set of Farmer's Wife blocks. It's slow, requires little brain power (apart from the ones that involve mirrored blocks - why, why!?!), and is filled with colour. I'm loving it.

Very much looking forward to this long weekend (magical words), hoping that I will enter next week more refreshed and more human-feeling. Hoping you all enjoy your weekends, wherever you happen to be!

50 Farmer's Wife Blocks

It only took me a year and 4 months!

50!!

Still though, I'm actually glad that I can pick it up and put it down as I please. Some months there's too much else going on, or once you sit down in the evening you're struggling to stay awake.

Y-seams, ftw!

I have been averse to picking it up since the start of this year, and having had almost 5 months to ponder it, I think I know why. I've not been feeling the colours and fabrics in the last few blocks. I chose them in the middle of last summer, when I cut out pieces for a behemoth 20 blocks in one go. It turns out I'm a fickle fabric chooser!

Honeycomb

So this time, I'll only be prepping the next five blocks. I'm also going to throw a withering glance over the fabrics that have managed to not get used 8 or 9 charm packs in.

Friendship Star

I also bought three new charm packs this Spring - Botanics, Daydream, and Mixed Bag - to reinvigorate the fabric choosing and colour palette.

I'm also quite sick of basket blocks - I haven't checked but I'm hoping there are no more!

Blergh...

Double blergh.

I noticed while laying out the blocks yesterday that I'm ending up with a lot of different sizes. This has to do with my inexperience in English paper piecing when starting out, and the laws of physics (4 sewn together pieces are going to be larger than a single piece cut to size - all that extra thread and fabric makes a difference!).

I need to add some darker blocks, dominated by pale ones right now.

However, I've come up with a cunning plan. I'll pop them into some generous sashing, alternating square and on-point, to make a humongous or a normal sized quilt depending on how long more I can keep the EPP going!

The obstinate mental part of me kind of wants to go all the way humongous - that's the same part that sees me almost halfway into what could be a 3 year quilt top, because I decided to do it by hand...

Obstinate and mental, that's me - why change now!? (that's totally logical thinking, right there!)

PS The sewing room/nook is an even bigger mess now, I opened the desk bits, realised I couldn't do it by myself, and won't have reinforcements until tomorrow night at the earliest! However, having run out of procrastination material, the organising will begin this evening - pinky swear!

December's techno/sewing effort

At the start of December I started a new block for the Farmer's Wife Quilt. I was still in Ireland and had found a handy tray to tote my hand-sewing paraphenalia around the house. Because it wasn't constantly getting scooped up and moved off the sofa (other people always want to sit where my sewing is - so annoying, damn those people), I suddenly thought I could take a picture every day and be able to see my progress.

Then I wanted to make the photos into a flickbook type video and I took to google to learn how. After struggling through various tutorials for Photoshop (all of which written from Macs for some reason, and I'm a PC girl), my wonderful husband decided to help and did it in 10 minutes in Microsoft Paint - who knew!??

Some disclaimers, this is my first gif, the compression of the pictures has caused some weird artefacts in places, and also Ireland in December means all sorts of funky lighting.

So here it is, if I can figure out how to make this upload and also run - fingers crossed! The block is  #43 Garden Path, has 44 pieces and finishes at 6".

1500 CT Ok, this isn't working right now, but I'll try and troubleshoot it over the next couple of hours as I can :)

1513 CT That didn't take long - woop!!

When I do this little experiment again I will definitely make sure I take the picture at the same time of day each day for constant light, and I'll also get a tripod for the camera so the distance from the block is the same. Still though I'm glad I did it, I love the block and it was fun to experiment with new things (to me).

Now I'll have to learn how to add some music.

We are now in Houston. We're largely unpacked though there are still piles of things in corners and the odd box hanging about. I got my sewing machine out at the start of this week and have begun a little bit of making. In fact, I'm seeing if I can last minute make my mini-quilt for the MQG Riley Blake Basics Challenge.

I might be mad (239 sqaures plus a paper pieced bottom not pictured), but it's nice to not be wrestling cardboard and packing tape each day!

Fingers crossed the mini is made by Sunday night - I'll pop it up here as soon as I finish :)

Have a Happy Valentine's Day - I hope there's some figure skating on tomorrow, so much glitter!!

Oh, and thank you for all the little bits of distraction and pretty I've gotten from your blogs over the last two months - totally sanity saving! x

WIP Wednesday (it took 3 goes to spell Wednesday, I might give up here...)

I have a couple of ongoing bits of sewing right now. They may be ongoing for a while, as I've only managed to sit down at the machine twice in the last week and a half. But, I'm quite excited for these two projects, one brand new and accidental, and the other over a year old and sort of ignored.

First up, the brand new! I brought the pieces required to make four Greek Cross blocks home. They are in the colour scheme put forward by Katie for a charity quilt to be put together at the DCMQG last Saturday for her brilliant 100 Quilts for Kids. I planned to make them in Ireland, and have them ready for the sew-in a few days after I got back to DC. But now I'm in Ireland for a little longer, and these had no way of magically becoming done and getting to DC in just a few days (the post takes horribly long sometimes!). So I'm making them up anyway.

I can take no credit for anything with this, but I'm hoping to quilt it up and use it to re-cover an enormous pillow/cushion I got as a teenager. Or else, I'll be seduced and turn it into a mini-quilt, or go crazy and add borders and make a baby quilt.... We'll see. It's taken me a full week to just get this far so it might never get finished! Lots of possibilities :)

I've taken the opportunity to haul out my Medallion quilt from Handstitched Class, which I started in ~May 2012. I stopped at the third border, because my two side pieces were too long (my piecing wasn't/isn't very accurate) and I didn't know how to solve the problem. There might be an old photo on the blog to show what I'm talking about...

And there is! See how the top and bottom are too long?

Anyway, impatience and a dislike of unpicking all those little squares meant that I just sewed a new seam in on every second row 1/8th of an inch further in.

I'm hoping that subsequent busy borders, and the fact that this was never going to be anything resembling a show quilt, will mean that very few will notice that some of the squares are not square!

The final thing that I'm working slowly on is the Farmer's Wife Quilt. I've finished a few blocks since I've been home (though a transatlantic flight and and 8 hour layover helped enormously!).

Instagram is proving to be enormously helpful for sewing. Last night when I finished Honey's Choice (the pinwheels in the top left corner) they were all buckled because I have to bend the shapes in order to get my seams to align while sewing. I can't see a way around this practice and it's the only way I've found so far to get aligned seams in blocks that have larger units joined to lots of smaller ones. So I put a plea out on instagram for information on how to help EPP'd blocks lie flat, other than putting them under heavy books. And Melinda from Quirky Granola Girl told me to leave the papers in (which I've done anyway as I plan to piece the sashing too) and give them a good steam press. Which I did, and it worked like a charm!

Woohoo for Melinda!! And Instagram!! And for asking the 'stupid questions'!!

Hopefully next week I might be further on again :)

Linking up to WIP Wednesday (ooh, I got it in one that time!!) at Freshly Pieced (that took a few tries) guested hosted this week by Kristy.

In the works...

So, I just finished a project, but it's secret for the moment but I really really love it so I'm impatient to get to sharing it here :)

I have two other projects that are about to get going, and since the guild meeting on Saturday I've been jumpstarted into my Farmer's Wife again! So here are a few photos and descriptions of my plans.

This is going to be a St Louis 16 patch, either for a about-to-be-born
baby, or as a charity quilt for 100 Quilts for Kids!

These blocks are using some of the new charm packs
I've added: Happy-Go-Lucky, Simply Color, and PB&J!
They're a bit darker than I started with, but I'm hoping
as I go along they'll blend in over all.

Next block is ready to go on the end of the sofa - Corn & Beans!

I'm finally starting to make Retro Flowers for my sister using AMH Field
Study and some Kona solids. I'm really nervous. The fabrics are so pretty
and the pattern so awesome, that I'm really worried I won't do it justice...
Fingers crossed, deep breath, and dive in!

I hope I can keep up a good momentum on these two quilts, and not get too sidetracked by other ideas. If I can get these done, then I can focus on some stuff for me again (another dress and a bag, maybe...!?).

Wish me luck!

Linking up to WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced!

Building Blocks Tuesday

So, the move has been made. I have finished unpacking. And reorganising all my fabric storage spaces (to fit the new stuff in - more new stuff on the blog this coming Sunday). And now some part of my brain is driving me to reorganise the flat in big Spring clean fashion... This was not how I planned to start my jetlag. But I will get to that project by the end of this week (the Sew Sweetness Velocity Girl bag!!).

What I couldn't resist doing was photographing all my newly reunited blocks while I tidied the fabric away. These are blocks I'm making on a continuous basis in the background. This is probably the last you'll see of them for another few months, at least!

First up, the x and + blocks I'm making with my Sew Solids Stash Club order from Simply Solids in the UK.

I've loved them as I've made them (I still have to learn some stuff about sewing on the bias), but together I think they are just so much better!! I can't wait till Christmas when hopefully I'll have all the blocks made and ready to go together into a QUILT!!

Secondly, my Lucky Stars BOM. I have failed miserably at this so far. There are good intentions in the pipeline for summer. I think if I stick with it I will learn a tonne about foundation paper piecing. I'll also end up with really lovely blocks, if I can do a good job with the colour choices... and the sewing. Seriously, check out the flickr group!! Amazing! Currently, this is all I've got to show:

I'm not even sure this picture is from it sewn together... It is though, promise!

Finally, my Farmer's Wife Quilt blocks thus far. I really like having these blocks to work on in the evenings and when I'm not feeling well.

If I was brave enough I probably would have enjoyed working on them while flying! I'm too scared to lose my little scissors and good needles at security though. I'm A Ginger Monkey has an article this week about just this topic. I'll be checking it out this weekend when I dream that I have everything organised and more time to read lovely blogs!

I'm linking up to Building Blocks Tuesday over at Quilter in the Closet. An excellent place for snooping on different blocks and colour choices - brilliant inspiration source!

Holy Cow! - I've been distracted.

It's been a month to the day since my last post. I'm not sure how that happened. I have been sewing and have finished two quilts - both are secrets for later in the year though. I'm glad to be through the temptation of sharing and so will not be mentioning them again until I can show PICTURES!!

But maybe, the overwhelming temptation to share stopped my from showing the other little bits that I've gotten done. Nothing finished, all various blocks. And one basted quilt, which now has me stumped. But enough chit chat with no pictures, onwards!!

First up, Farmer's Wife Blocks:

Clockwise from top: Broken Sugarbowl; Cats and Mice; Churn Dash; and Century of Progress

Cats and Mice drove me nuts. I took out the central papers to try and make it look less warped (a lot of bending went into trying to make the ends line up), but I think I might have been better to leave it under a phonebook for a while.

And in my Century of Progress I managed to turn three of my beige triangles' fabric the wrong side out. I didn't notice until it was finished and then I was not unpicking. And so it will stay as you see it, with the bottom triangle darker than all the rest.

I also finished Buckwheat and Butterfly at the Crossroads. Buckwheat only has very very bad fuzzy phone pictures right now and is currently in a suitcase that Paul brought back to DC two days ago. It shall have to make it's debut later. But here is the butterfly:

I finished my uncle's quilt top. It's also pin basted now. But the quilt is so heavy I won't be able to get it through our domestic sewing machine. I could hand quilt it, by sewing points every few inches. But that still leaves me in  a bind about binding!

Yep, that middle stone-coloured row has a join where I have the nap going in opposite directions.

And I made the last two month's of colours from my stash club into x and + blocks!! I love how these are coming out, can't believe I have to wait till December to start putting them together into the quilt.

I've found some fabric stuff about my parent's house as I've been packing up for the move to America. I'll share them in my next post. And I have made plans for things to make during the jetlag in my first week over in DC. So I won't be forgetting this place again. Plus all upcoming quilts are not secret - YAY!!!!!

I've missed ye :)

Work in Progress - Farmer's Wife Quilt

Linking up to WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced today!

When I hurt my back again last Friday I was facing a weekend of restricted movement and lots of lying on my back. It turns out there's only so much internet surfing you can do before madness begins to set in, so I turned to my started in mid-January but utterly ignored ever since then project - Farmer's Wife Blocks!! I'm paper piecing them as a slow-as-you-like evening and travel project over the next year (at least, I reckon).

First up is the only one I had already completed!

Autumn Tints in The Sweetest Thing by Zoe Pearn for Riley Blake

I decided that I would make the first five blocks exclusively from the five charm packs I have set aside for this quilt. The white solid in there is Kona Snow.

Attic Window in Flutter by The Quilted Fish for Riley Blake

I have learned that when handstitching on your back, the thread will tickle your nose unmercilessly!

Basket Weave in Odds and Ends by Julie Comstock for Moda

I wasn't sure how all these charm packs would play together, but I'm starting to feel better about it. Even though I have yet to mix them in the one block. I am actually a bit surprised at how much I like these blocks all together, you'll see I'm putting a joint picture in at the end! But first:

Basket in Hello Luscious by BasicGrey for Moda

As you can see I haven't appliqued on the handle for the basket. I'm not sure I will. I'd have to piece it together from scraps of the charms and then applique it. It sounds like a lot of effort right now, but maybe next year when I'm putting the whole thing together it'll sound like a doddle...

Bat Wing in California Girl by Fig Tree for Moda

I do not get this block. It doesn't look anything like a bat to me. I accept it though, as I accept this next one because maybe this is knowledge that comes with piecing quilts for a lot longer than a year!???

Big Dipper, not a mix, but I have separated out all the charm packs into their colours so I no longer no for sure!

Here they all are together. I decided to try out this alternating on point and square layout after seeing this quilt yesterday by Bella Lou - it's stunning!!

The pretties - totally motivating me to keep going :)

Here's my next block. There are forty different pieces and it took me all of yesterday to cover the paper shapes! I think it will take till tomorrow to get it all sewn together.

Finally, Robert (our postman) dropped these in my door as I was writing this and I just had to share! I bought the Blossom Heart Quilts Japanese Bundle Club for February and it just arrived!!! The second link will bring you to the March bundle club page - I think I'll have to get that one too :)

The theme this month was Sewing!!

And the parcel came stuck together with the cutest tape EVER!

Ok, that's it! I'm off to settle my US taxes (also brought today by Robert) and to tackle those forty triangles, or in reality, I'm off to buy the March Japanese Bundle from Alyce and to pet my new Japanese sewing fabrics :)

Hope you all have a good Wednesday!

xx