Toronto Trip

Isn't this just yummy! While I was in Toronto I went to the Toronto Textile Museum I was lucky there was a Quilt display  on the whole third floor.  Yippee!

 So While my DH and the rest of the family went to the Hockey Hall of fame. (boring) I got to see some wonderful quilts made in the 1800's.

This is a log cabin whose finished strips were no wider than my pinky nail.  Can you imagine doing this by oil or gas light in a small stuffy room?



The whole reason for the trip was to go to the Toronto Art Gallery to see the King Tut exhibit. It was worth every penny we spent to see it.   It wasn't the gold or the massiveness of the displays that moved me although they did amaze me. What hit me as I looked at a piece of wall that was made in Seti's time. That this piece of wall was being carved as Moses was being raised in Egypt.  I got all goosebumply when I though of the time that this part of a wall exhisted and brought into focus everything I was taught in Sunday School.  We are as dust motes in time and can only hope to be better people than our history teaches us.

Side Tracked

I have been frantically piecing cutting pressing. I have this log cabin quilt in my head and I got to get it out. I have two other projects that have to be complete in 2 weeks and I have barely begun them.  I have been sidetracked. 

Its not only this quilt top that has me off kilter its this  Round Robin Block exchange.  I finished my blocks - Union Square from Marsha Hohn's site.  I want a Christmasy Quilt.  I finished Alicia's blocks (Sunny Lanes) and they are now on their way to Pat.

I really like this block I wonder what it would look like with Scrappy Beiges?  What about totally beige.  OKay in 2 weeks and only if I get the 2 quild projects done.


hugs
Deedee

Just a peek

This is what I got back from  my LA.  Fabulous!!!
It is  Bonnie Hunters  smokey mountain stars in batiks.  I have to get this labeled and bound for the upcoming quilt show in Winnipeg.   If I get my but in gear I might be able to finish another one.

I just think that these nickel and quarter size pebbles are just the thing for this quilt.
I have finished the flimsy of my girly quilt. the Strip Twist. I will take a photo outside if its sunny out.
For now I will just go and cut some strips for DSD Graduation Quilt.

Finding inspiration

Started off checking off my usual haunts in blogland today and well found a great artist. Check it out. 

artsy chick quilts

Shop Hopping

I was so sure I was going to be able to keep up with the blogging thing but i got sidetracked. I am doing the January Bunny Shop Hop. OH I could hardly contain myself...so I didn't. So now I have 20 fat quarters of Black and White  or White and Black on there way to my home as we speak.

I also found some cool halloween purple with skulls tonal print I went and got 3 yards of that. I do have a project for that particular yardage when it arrives. I started ages ago on Bonnie Hunters Orange Crush. Well I didn't go for her color scheme and went with Black instead of neutrals and what ever bright and lively colours I had in my stash so the work in progress is Halloween Crush. That purple will be the best border and binding. 

I phoned and ordered the Beige Behemoth Quilt Block of the month but I only did that so I could get some more neutrals in my stash from the Sew Sisters Shop in Ontario.  I mean I have the Block of the month pattern because I ordered it last year but I figured that they will be using new fabric lines in neutrals and this was the easiest way to get them .  I mean I don't go out and look for Beige Fabric. I don't like Beige so I don't go to the store and go and say I need BEIGE! I go out and look at PURPLE  and ORANGE and buy those instead.  It is logical in my own mind.  

I tried ordering a few more things from another shop with Paypal but I couldn't remember my passwords , One to get into my email and two my paypal account.  I think this was just a sign that I should stop shopping so  I kinda stopped oh but the window shopping was great. The only thing that was missing was the fabric fondling. 

There is a couple of designers that I am being drawn to but haven't purchased anything of their lines. The fabulous Kaffe Fasset and Phillip Jacobs. There colors and style are kinda funky and I haven't found any of their lines here in local shops so I will be good for now and save up for the hundred yard dash for fabric sometime in my future.

So what have i been doing ... lets see I washed my floors on my hands and knees with the toothbrush for the small cracks in the hardwood floors.  With Taco and JJ drooling and dragging food all over the floor and the 7 year old cookie monster that I have been watching for the past week  It was time. That is it for housework. That is enough don't you think?

 I also cut out 124 1.5 inch squares in darks for one project I started 2 years ago. Its a medalion BOM. I mean I have all the stuff here and it was one of my projects of the day thing. Another one was 2.5 inch squares for a Christmas gift of a table runner for next Christmas.  I am off to an early start because I know I will end up quilting it around the 20th of December 2011 if my  track record holds true.

If you can't tell my lovely cat Wicket was very curious about what was on my mat and wouldn't leave until I took a picture of  her.

Friday and Saturday Gone Frogging

As many of you know Frogging  a polite term for ripping the damn sewing out that you just did to fix the f@%# mistake that Is Glaringly apparent in the piece once it is almost complete.

I was working on my third panel for a scrappy Bargello ( Another Bonnie Hunter Quilt) and well its not matching the 2 panels already sewn. After counting and matching colors in the panel I figured it out. One too many strips. Okay that shouldn't hold me up to much.  Oh I was sooooo WRONG.

I turned it around and starting frogging and it came out fairly quickly. I took out what I thought was the offending piece and sewn the tube back together. Still was not matching ... I took out the wrong piece ... back to frogging This time I marked the piece with  a quilting safety pin.  Again took out the correct piece this time and stitched it back together....  What I forgot to do was return the piece that I took out the first time by this time I was getting seriously Peeved. (again polite term). Back to Frogging

I finally got that piece together right number of strips sewn back into a tube ready for cutting into strips. Pressed and set aside while I took out the next panel It too had one to many strips. Caught it before I cut into strips yeah!.. so  I set it aside with the other panel and went and had a cup of coffee.  So I could have a fresh start  on Saturday so I would  feel better if I got the panels cut into strips and done into the panels again.
Saturday bright and early 7 am after taking the dogs out I was completely awake because it was Frigging Cold out  I decided I would put on the coffee and start back on the panels since Friday was a wash for project a day

  .   I matched up the fifth panel and was grateful that it matched. So I cut it. What I didn't count on is that I matched it to the one that I didn't take that offending strip out.  Now since there was Three panels with and extra strip same .     I matched up the colours to the panels that I already had sewn together and  What the F@%#  one extra strip but now I had cut the  panel into strips grrrrrrrr.  Did that mean that the first two panels that were already sewn were the actual wrong panels   and I forgot to put a strip in. ??? I now notice that my colours are not matching and there is a green not where it is supposed to be and a red that extra in 2 others.  I remember why I put it away in the first place. Question to all you quilters, do I just give in and sew it the way it is sewn or  rip some more.

What is going to be my project today?

Strip Twist n Stuff

What happens when you let a fabric crazed woman whos going through menopause loose in her stash ?

I ended up with this while I was cutting  the strips of 2.5 inch fabrics that I cut for my girlie Strip Twist designed by Bonnie Hunter of Quiltville.  What happened is that I got distracted and started doing something else and the next thing I know I have this pile of stuff laying on top of my strips.  I KNOW  I put them right there!.
Any way  messed got moved and I located my 9 inch strips that I had cut for my  Strip Twist that had become the Project for the day.  

Project for the Day started because of the Chaos of my projects was getting out of hand. I figured that if I work on one project a day for the next year I might have a few finishes instead of just starts and UFO's.  ( I have a short attention span.) Who am I kidding I LOVE new projects and all that yummy goodness of  crisp Best Pressed fabric waiting to be cut.  Back to the Project of the day, this isn't a resolution its just a way to keep me focused (pretty hard) on one project for a day to work on.  I have no deadlines, no pressure just some good clean sewing fun.

I had started the  Strip Twist some time in the past 2 years  and just did a few blocks here and there.  So I ended up with these blocks. Not done yet.

Because yesterday I had cut , lost found and then sewn these bits together. there are 50 pairs of strips to make 25 blocks to whip together. I think I need to make another 30 pairs for the size I want. 

Not leaving Wednesday  out but I  was working on the never ending pile of half square triangles to do the  pinwheels in my OTR . I chose to do the pinwheels in purple so they stand out a bit and my leader and enders  have no purple in them.  They have to be pressed open and then sewn into 4 patches.   The bricks in this project was cut out when Bonnie first started this in what seems like ages ago. 
Lets see what trouble I can create in my sewing today.
Be Safe and use a Klutz glove.  I gotta get me one of those.

Hugs