That was fun!

Oh, the wonders of the web and procrastination! I stumbled upon a lovely website that offers a Zentangle challenge every week. If you have not heard of it, from what I gather, Zentangle-ing is sort of like controlled doodling with a purpose. I have posted a doodle of my own in the past, here . It and its cousins take up pages and pages of handouts and notes given to me during various presentations. I listen, I do. I even pay attention and have questions and comments and things to say about the presentations... but all the while I fill my pages with ink. So, despite not having had any instruction or actually having ever even read any of the many Zentangle books available I thought I might participate in this weekly exercise. I am interested and I am also trying to get my sister interested as well. She is a gifted artist with many different media but has less time to devote to it (and lets face it, she does a better job of cleaning her house than I do!) and tends to need a 'reason', a problem to solve, a purpose even! Hey, procrastination is all the reason I'll ever need! But anyway, this week's challenge appears to be something sunflower inspired. Since the doodle I posted a while back kinda fits that bill I re-worked it in the 3.5" square format of a "tile" and will submit it. Check out the other fabulous 'tangles' at 'I am the Diva'.

Color inspiration for fall...

OK, yesterday's post didn't have nearly enough pretty photos as it should. So, I am pulling these out for eye relief and because the season is right.

 I suppose I could have called this post "Oh Nuts!". A couple of weeks ago middle son wanted to cut open a buckeye nut pod from the back yard to see what was inside. Those buckeye nuts are such gorgeous brown colors! He started looking around for more so he could give them to his friends and his teacher when I told him that some people think that rubbing a buckeye is lucky. We found all sorts of nuts back in the woods, acorns, hickory nuts etc, but I think the squirrels had gotten all the rest of the buckeyes. He also found a huge number of uninhabited snail shells over by the downspout that had such fragile, subtle grey and white and soft brown colors. I just love the shapes of the hickory nuts, they look like tiny little boats...or the segments of an orange peel quilt block. The 'eye' on the buckeye reminds me of a quilt block too... an uneven cobblestone block. That would be pretty in all rich warm tones of brown and red-brown with cooler beige centers. Of course I had to include some leaf colors as well in my little tableau.

So I took this set of photos as imported a couple into Abode Kuler and made some pallets from them. If I needed a new fall project (which I most assuredly DO NOT) then I might look to these for inspiration.
Lucky Buckeye
Oh Nuts
Leaves






Then of course there is the Stinging Rose Caterpillar that my husband found on an oak tree in his grandmother's yard and had to bring home to show us. This little guy lived with us a few days and even went to preschool with little girl.  Then we let him off on an oak tree of our own. His colors do not look fallish to me, but more like summer. Still an inspiring collection of colors and tiny little stinging hairs!

I hope you are having a beautiful productive fall day (I certainly am not sitting here posting a blog entry instead of cleaning my house as I should!). See you Monday!

Midweek Progress

Well, not as much to report as I would like, but isn't that always the case? Between a sick kid, a sick dog (don't ask what I've been cleaning up for the past two days!) and a sick me and a couple of non-quilting but legitimate sewing type projects the quilting stuff has been mostly sidelined this week.


 Currently in Progress:

• My Tweets BOM by Erin Russek - no movement since last week, although I peeked at her post on Monday and this month's block is awesome and will be downloadable on Friday!
• Crumb Along project with Jo at Jo's Country Junction - see my post from Monday, it is getting exciting and is the only quilting project I have worked much on this week.
• bonus triangle quilt no new progress this week

• Modern Workshop Jelly Roll quilt applique borders - I got both long borders sewn on and one of the short borders up on the wall with the quilt to figure color placement of the flowers. I was VERY disappointed to realize that the "short" borders will have just as many flowers as the long ones did (because the addition of the long borders also makes the quilt wider) and so will take just as long to applique all those silly things on there and just as long to starch and stitch all those leaves (4 leaves per flower = another 40 leaves x2 borders = 80 MORE.... ugh). I will show a photo when there is more progress on this 

On Deck: 

• Don't even talk to me about what is on deck... it might as well be UNDER the deck at this point.

New Projects: 

• Costumes for Cub Scouts, one down, one to go, plus some victory laurels to make

one Greek chiton down, one to go, ready for cutting out - and no, this is not the sick dog

• Hexie hand project... This is the one that saw the most progress this week because I had plenty of sit and wait time with the kids' lessons etc... 4 flowers complete, the 5th is almost ready for putting together and that might be all I need for the doll quilt size, plus a bunch of green. What do you think of the alternating greens?

• BSA fleece panels I found for my guys are being layered and "quilted" so you can see the fleur de lis on the backside (the yellow on the left is the back of the finished one) - trying to finish in time for fall camping, 1 is complete, the 2nd needs a little contrasting fringe and primitive quilting (and I have a third for my hubby because he kinda wants one too!)

Finishes:

well, um, one chiton is finished and one fleece throw is finished... does that count?

Check out what other people are finishing over at Freshly Pieced.  

Possibilities

This weekend, in between watching middle son get excited over dissecting a shark and taking little daughter into a mini clinic to have her hurting (infected) ears looked at and getting her cold from last week myself  I worked a little on the crumb quilt that I expect I will call Heart of Gold. What possibilities! I am getting really quite excited about this quilt and am running out of wall space. I managed to piece a number of new blocks in the last week and this weekend got the new ones up with the old ones to see what more is needed. Wow,

The whole collection, minus un-grouped 4" blocks yet to be sashed or made into stars

what possibilities! I also put together a few sets of 4 4" blocks in little 2x2 window units with sashing to make them the right size. I think I like the dark sashing with no setting blocks, the light sashing is just too distracting, as is the high contrast setting block. Do you see the units I am talking about? What do you think? I need a few more wonky stars with crumb centers (does anything with a 'crumb center' sounds like a dessert, or is it just me?) to scatter around and I will probably add a few more other blocks with flying geese and other things to have enough variety. I do still want to sample a lay out with no wonky stars, maybe an on point setting... lots to think about. I also need to decide on how large it will be. If it is less than 60" square I could submit it for a guild challenge in February that it is perfect for, but I have some misgivings about that including, but not limited to the fact that I might want to make it bigger than that. Of course at 7x7 I run out of wall space so that becomes a problem in and of itself. What do you do when you run out of wall space? Floor is not a good option for me because of where the sewing machine is and there are too many children and dogs running around in this house to make it practical to leave it there for any amount of time.

WOOP WOOP! linear editor just kicked in - gonna have to
fix the vertical mismatch on  these sashing peices!

an example of the light sashing - distracting right?

I also have laid out the third border for the Moda quilt that I've been working on. I was optimistic that the "short sides" wouldn't take as long to applique because they wouldn't have as many flowers on them... NOT SO! The 'short' side is made longer because the two long side borders make the quilt wider so there are JUST AS MANY flowers on the short borders as the long ones... sigh. This is going to be a longer term project than I first imagined! I will post photos when there is more progress.

For more of what other people are up to check out Design Wall Monday.

Crumb-y progress.

I tell ya, the word "crumb" must have a thousand and one puns and I am determined to use them all before this is over! is it even really a pun, or is it called something else? I will leave the semantics to some one more language-centric than I.

Anyway, it's been a long week here at Cut'n It Up. The reading program at the elementary school is in full swing and that means a few days a month dedicated to processing reading forms, filling out certificates and awarding prizes. The first month always comes with making stars with names and photos too, which takes FOREVER. It especially takes a long time when nearly the entire grade is participating. It is great to have so many enthusiastic readers... it just makes for a lot of work for the volunteers.

The whole collection from this week

So, it was later in the week than usual that I got to sit down with my scraps and sew up some more blocks for the crumb quilt. This week's assignment was using triangles, which I have a lot of left over fromother stuff. I used to fond of the pinwheel arrangement, but recently I have really liked the broken dishes look. So I used that a couple of times, it seems like a lot of 'structure' for a crumb block, but it is growing on me. Since I have lots of 4" blocks to incorporate I made one broken dishes that will make a 4" block all by itself (it is in the group of 4 4" in the picture above). I was really surprised to come across those particular HST's because they are from a quilt using Thimbleberry fabrics I made in 1999 and gave to my mother the Christmas of 2001.  My 'assigned' triangle blocks are below. I will try to use the strip of triangles in at least one more block if I can because I like the repeat.

I made 6 more wonky stars with crumb centers to include in the mix as well as a few heart blocks, two new stars and finished up a four patch. I like the harlequin look of the green and gold heart and the bird house fabric is making a few more appearances. They are too cute!

I hope to be putting a few of the 4" block arrangments together with some sashing (what color should I use?) and getting everything I have up on the design wall this weekend. I am anxious to see what it is going to look like all together. Check out the rest of the work going on with the Crumb Along here.

Have a great weekend.

Another WIP Wednesday...

Hello all. I am back this week to report how much I did (not) get done this week! This is motivating, but also a little frustrating because there is so much I would LIKE to get done that I never seem to get around to.

Currently in Progress:

• My Tweets BOM by Erin Russek - I am nearly finished with the July block, I need to make 7 flower center circles and sew on those and one more 5 petal flower and one leaf. I may try to choose colors for the August block this week, or decide if I am doing a smaller version  (I am out of my background after one more block anyway and I am horrible at finishing large tops so I may throw in the towel at 9 blocks) 
• Crumb Along project with Jo at Jo's Country Junction - I have 6 new blocks and a short stack of parts to make more stars. I hope to add 4 or 5 blocks using triangles as a base (this week's assignment) and maybe another heart

• bonus triangle quilt got pulled out and I put together a few blocks between other things. I should sit and trim HST's in the evening one night this week to get them ready for sewing. This is a LO of the blocks I have. I have two more without the red corners (25 total) and the makings of almost this many again. Does anyone know what this block is called? These are each 6" finished so it is still pretty small.

The HST's came from trimming the bonus triangles off of the points of this quilt..

Queen Sized pinwheel quilt, tied, 1998/99

The LO pattern was inspired by this quilt...

Flannel bed topper, 2001

• Modern Workshop Jelly Roll quilt applique borders -This was the most commented on quilt from last week's post Thanks!- it has that breezy modern vibe to it thanks to the great Moda fabric. I have totally finished the second long border and gotten the first three flower stem groups on the first short border. I need to get it up on the wall and decide on flower colors so I can get it glue-basted in place. Then there are those leaves I mentioned last week...

On Deck: 

• Debbie Mumm wall hanging set completed except for hanging sleeves. I DID NOT get this done despite it being an EASY finish (hangs head) . 

• design pieced parts of Spring Basket wall hanging I posted about here - still not done or even thought about
• Garden BOM quilt never made it out of the drawer

NEW projects (WHAT, I don't need NEW projects!)

• costumes fitting the theme for Fall Family Camping with Cub Scouts in October - we are in charge of the Saturday night campfire and want to do it up in style!
• DANG IT! I resisted the hexie craze for SOOOO long and was fine with it until I saw the hexagon die cut thing at school while I was doing my volunteer thing. Ugh! I also happened to have a few sheets of card stock so I whipped a few out and dug through the repro stash... 

I have some pink and purple and LOTS of blue but I think I will stick to different yellow flowers with the same red center surrounded by green, possibly alternating between the two since I doubt I have enough of either one to do the whole thing. But then it depends on what I decide to make out of it and how big it will be. Dolly quilt anyone?

• I drafted myself a 16" version of the Swoon block and figured out cutting requirements and have thought about throwing a few of these together for a comfort quilt for a friend/relative who is having a rough health battle right now. I may hold off for now since her treatments and condition tend to make her overheat more than anything... not sure. 

Finishes: 

NADA! because we also did a lot of this kind of thing this week...

fall weather is lovely and it is very hard to keep the kids inside. 

Hope your week was awesome too (and you got more sewing done than me!)

Blessings of the web...

I attended a very interesting talk this weekend about children and technology; TV, games, computers, the internet, Facebook, cell phones, etc. The upshot in the end was that, just like with many other aspects of life, you have to function as the "crap filter" for your kids. None of those technologies are 100% bad, but the good that can come from them must be found and bad filtered out. I think that is true with adults too, we just have to do it for ourselves.
The internet in particular can be both good and bad. Browsing quilt blogs in particular can be an amazing source of inspiration and motivation, as well as an endless time-suck that keeps us away from the actual sewing machine! It can be a window into our lives that we would rather some people not use at all, while we welcome others with open arms, or comment boxes as the case may be. I have belonged to an online community of women raising children since 2000 that has been both tremendously helpful in a practical sense as well as incredibly emotionally supportive. The only downside to that community is that people look at you strange when you start talking about your 'good friend' from thousands of miles away that you have never met!  Today's design wall is an example of the wonderful good that can come from on-line communities, in this case a quilting one. The quilt on the wall today is the result of collaboration between 6 people in the US and Canada this past spring. We chose fabrics to make blocks and mass manufactured 6-8 of each fabric to exchange with each person participating.

Stitch and Quilt Exchange Scrap quilt 2011

The quilt is going to be fabulous and there are fabrics in there that I never would have chosen myself but that add tremendously to the overall look. The layout is of course not finished. In fact I have not yet made all the blocks I plan to make, although chunks of fabric have been cut and packed away in the project tub. It is a long term, slow and steady project that I plan to work on a bit at a time. I wanted to throw the blocks up this weekend to decide if I wanted to bring up yet another exchange for this winter so we can all widen our fabric scope. I hope I can engender some interest in it.

Bookcase Quilt 2000-2001

Another internet project that I derived a lot of pleasure from was a round robin type bookshelf quilt undertaken by 12 wonderful ladies spanning 5 countries and 12 months. I would almost be game for another one like that at some point, and not because I use the quilt a lot (see, its not even quilted - that is practically my signature!) but because the interaction between the people and the range of ideas and skills that were brought to it were so interesting. I guess that in the early years of the last century quilting promoted community by bringing people together to stitch and talk and support each other at a time when neighbors could be miles apart and not see each other for weeks or months at a time. In this century we are being brought together again by quilting, only now it can be from as much as thousands of miles and country boundaries away. Thanks for being part of my quilting community!