Silently Falling

This morning it is curiously warm, probably because there isn't a breath of wind.

The white spots in the picture are enormous snowflakes, falling straight down.

I was amused by Boysie snapping at snowflakes landing on his back as if they were flies. Little things please little minds! Since the snow was literally hock deep for him at a little over 6" on my measuring stick, he didn't waste a lot of time before asking to go back inside. That dog hates wet feet.

My plans for today are simple:

• finish sewing rows together on my Domiciles quilt,
• find a border & binding fabric,
• make a narrow border & bias binding,
• catch up on some friends blogs, and,
• finish reading (re-reading) The Far Pavilions by MM Kaye while curled up in my chair, drinking tea.

Y'all come back!

Red and White

In October 2011 I saw a simple red and white quilt on my friend Jay's blog, Midwest Quilts. I don't know why it caught my imagination. All I can tell you is that I went and dug out all my ancient red scraps mostly from a 1999 Fat Quarter Bingo win and made my own version of it. With all the ancient and ugly red scraps used I was able to buy lots of lovely new reds with a clear conscience.

Click any image to embiggen (I hope)

I dug out some backing fabric, made some bias binding and sent it off to Lori to quilt.

Lori didn't like the backing and she hated the binding so it sat, unloved, on a shelf.

When I came back to South Dakota last year I brought some chicken fabric with me. I bought it in 1996 from JoAnns, mainly because of its name. Who could resist "Tossed Chickens"?. Those were the days when they had nice fabric, before they got so cheap in quality and expensive in price.

The chicken fabric met with Lori's approval. Phew!

The finished quilt measures approximately 60" x 72". It was quilted and bound by Lori. The large Hibiscus pantograph is by Diff'rent Strokes, and as you can see, the quilt is undergoing the nap test.

Done is a feel good moment and this is Number Two for 2013.

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My Little Helper & Friends

Bella is very attached, and needy. She was very ill when I found her but physically fine now. She positions herself strategically between both computers. She seems to like the fact that my mouse hand is constantly touching her.

Dottie is much more independent. Her main concern is that the food bowl is kept full. She is much older than the other two who are still kittens.

Boysie is a Jack Russell Terrier, also a rescuee, we adopted him and a cat when his previous owner had an ultimatum from her employer/landlord... He will be three years old May 1st. Sandy is exploring the vacuum cleaner box and Boysie would dearly like to get in there too but he is just too big, or the box is too small, or something. Bummer.

Bella and Dottie share a deep appreciation of quilts, especially when they are on a bed. This is a scientific nap test.

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Monday Design Wall

Having cleared all the works in not very much progress off my design wall, this is the current project to be finished before I even look at anything else! It is my Domiciles house quilt, pattern by Aardvark Quilts, available here with free S & H.

This pattern is not the tiny paper pieced houses that had such a following last year. These blocks are 6" finished, quite small enough, thank you

I am having difficulty keeping blocks up on the design wall.

Kitty Bella has developed a passion for the yellow glass head pins I use. As fast as I put blocks up she takes them down and runs off with the pins.

I had six rows arranged before she fixed it! Grrrr!

See lots more design walls at Patchwork Times.
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Snowy Saturday Houses

I woke this morning to a dusting of snow. It is quite lovely. Being from the islands I am thrilled by the snow. Boysie, not so much. He is thin coated and I think his toes get cold, but you know, everything is bearable when you have a red ball.

I have been avoiding new projects and plan to actually finish some of the things I started since getting here.

First step to accomplishing this was to find them all, there are rather a lot!

I cleared off the design wall, made a list and noted what needed to be done to each one. Then I sorted and bagged the pieces, the fabric and the pattern with my "to do" note.

Number One was the project which required the least effort. The blue and green batik kit quilt. Finishing it only involved one corner, trimming to square, piecing a backing and making bias binding. "Done" is a virtuous feel good moment. Onward

Next on the piecing list is the Domiciles red houses quilt. When I started it I thought the pattern size of 48" x 60" was pretty wimpy and useless for anything other than a wall hanging or baby quilt. Mine was going to be bigger! Much BIGGER! Then I got tired of it, the butterfly brain went "Oh look" and found another project. The house quilt languished and sulked in a pile of fabric. So sad.

My method for small block scrappy quilts is to start making blocks and stop when I run out of fabric or enthusiasm. I had made 66 blocks plus one four house block. The pattern supplies a paper piecing template for the teeny houses but I do not enjoy paper piecing so I winged it on mine, the houses are a little wonky (but charmingly so) and I prefer wonky to picking bits of paper off the block any day of the week.

My get it done plan is to make a total of 99 blocks, set 9 x 11 and add a 3" border to yield a 60" x 72" top. Not a lot bigger than the pattern but a good size for a snuggle up to read quilt or a bed topper.

Goal for the week:

• make at least 16 house blocks
• start laying them out in rows on the design wall
• paw through my stash and probably Lori's stash too for the backing, binding and border fabric

Y'all come back!

Another One Bites the Dust

The best way to describe today's weather is "raw". It is not that cold, around 34°F but the humidity is 100%. As it is not actually raining we have fog.

This brief tropical interlude mid-winter has caused much of the snow to melt, into slush, mud interspersed with sheet ice. Cold + damp = raw. Very British.

So, what bit the dust? A UFO bit the dust, the first 'finish' of the year... Here it is:
Click photos to enlarge

This was a kit bought on sale for under $50 from Connecting Threads. I can claim no credit whatsoever for the fabric choices.

The fabrics are from their own line of batiks (which are incredibly well priced) and the pattern is called Fabric Dance by Grizzly Gulch Gallery.

It uses just five fabrics pieced into four patches and alternating five inch squares set on point. This would be a wonderful first quilt project and I had fun with it too. The backing, shown below, was off a bolt I bought a few years back.

It was quilted and bound by Lori. The pantograph is "Flowing Feathers" by Australian designer Hermione Agee of Lorien Quilting.

I used to be quite snooty about quilt kits, I mean, who needs a kit? Well I was wrong wrong wrong. What a quilt snob I was!

Quite often kits are a bargain. You get just as much fabric as you need with a generous fudge factor for cutting oopsies (in most cases) and, when you add in the pattern and the convenience it is a no brainer, literally.

A word to the wise. Most kits assume you will use straight grain strips for the binding and calculate fabric quantities accordingly. I prefer bias binding. The binding gets the most wear on a quilt and bias binding is strongest. I always order at least an extra yard of the binding fabric.

Have you ever made a kit?

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Butterflies

I don't know if it is a symptom of aging or lack of focus, or both, but I am increasingly unable to start something and progress through until it is finished. I have always been a 'small bites list' person but these days I don't even get around to making a list, then not much gets done.

The number of 'works in progress' is becoming alarming, and they are not progressing. Butterflies in the brain, that's what it is. Is there a solution? I am working on it but there had better be!

The halfway point seems to be the slipping point. I start out with tremendous enthusiasm and about half way through "Oh look! That's nice, I want to make that!" and I am off in a completely different direction. So far I seem to be running at the rate of about one stalled project a month.

My White Christmas Amaryllis in bloom, snow outside. Click picture to enlarge This is a butterfly moment. Not flea brain as some people say, butterflies, much prettier. Oh look there is a flower! Isn't it pretty?

Step one, make a list. Step two, kill Lori when she helpfully points out the omissions.

Happy New Year to all!

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