Swoon finished

I was just too tired to post after working yesterday.  I finished the Swoon quilt and it’s now hanging at Keep Me In Stitches. 

This isn’t the best picture but you get the idea.    The stripes really stand out in the photo but they’re really not that prominent.  I’ll take a better picture when I get it back.  It’s made from the Vintage Modern line of fabric by Bonnie and Camille from Moda.  I quilted it in an overall freehand design with Quilters Choice thread.  This thread really works well for me.  It’s a fine thread so it creates subtle texture and blends in well when you quilt light thread over darker fabric, has minimal lint since it’s polyester and I don’t have a problem with breaking or shredding.  All the kits and most of the fabric is now gone so I should be able to bring it home soon.

This morning I had a little bit of time to sew so I worked on the Piebirds blocks.  Hooray! They’re finished!

The inspiration for these blocks was the book Simple Charm by Kim Diehl.  She made a table runner using these blocks.  I love the block and wanted to make a whole quilt with it.  I have 20 blocks made.  I redrafted the pattern I didn’t have a seam in the middle of the “flying geese” units.  I’m so glad I learned to cut trapezoids from Debbie Caffrey’s book Open A Can of Worms.  Blocks like this can be made so much easier!  This method also eliminates connector corners.  I try to avoid those whenever possible because I hate dealing with the leftover corners.  It’s really too putzy for me to sew another seam to make half-square triangles but I also hate to just throw them away.  So I try to just use techniques where the angles are cut to fit.  SO much easier!

I started sewing the top together, but haven’t quite finished it.  I’m hoping to at least get that finished tomorrow but my book club is meeting here tomorrow night and I have to get ready for that.  We read The Light Between Oceans this month.  I really liked this selection and it’s the kind of book that should generate some good discussion!

Another rainy day

In almost any other circumstance I would welcome a rainy day like we had today.  It’s nice to have an excuse to stay inside and sew.  Unfortunately I didn’t have that option today.  Jen came home from school this weekend and we were trying to get a lot accomplished.  She hasn’t been home in a long time and was looking forward to doing some shopping, crafting and playing with “her” cats.  She’s had a couple of busy, stressful weeks with exams so it was nice that she could just relax at home for a couple of days doing what she wanted.

Last week when I was at the AQS show in Des Moines I picked up a pack of placemat blanks.  I hadn’t seen these before they are really easy to use.  Basically, they are a pre-cut heavyweight fusible product.  You simply iron fabric to the front and back then bind them.  This morning I made a set for Jen to take back.  I made one side with cute Halloween fabric and the other just a fun print. They turned out pretty well. 

I had to do a little experimenting with applying the binding by machine.  It’s not perfect but for this purpose it is fine.  After making these, I baked some cookies for her to take back.  I saw a recipe for Pumpkin Blossoms on the Inspired by Charm blog and made those.  They are a great cookie for fall.  Unfortunately I can’t find anymore pumpkin kisses so this will be the only batch this year. Here’s a link to the recipe if you have or can find the pumpkin kisses.

http://www.inspiredbycharm.com/2012/09/pumpkin-blossom-fall-cookie-week.html

There are so many quilts in progress in my sewing room right now.  I thought maybe I’d get some more time in the sewing room after we returned from taking Jen back to Madison but I’m just too tired.  We taped some football games and the baseball games and will probably “speed watch” them, then call it a day.  I’m really, really hoping for more sewing time this week.

Perfect for a Rainy Day

We finally got the precipitation we’d been praying for all summer—a day long strong, steady, soaking rain. Even though it came late in the season (and on a Saturday!) we weren’t complaining.  All summer long we’d seen the billboard along Highway 41 advertising the Ansel Adams exhibit at the Paine in Oshkosh and kept saying we’d like to see it.  It was a perfect day for a museum visit so we finally went,  It was a beautiful exhibit and I was glad we finally made it down there.

The photographs were amazing and the narratives gave some insight into the measures Adams would take to capture the image.  He lugged pounds and pounds of equipment through mountains and deserts and would wait hours for the lighting to be just right.  He was an amazing artist who really worked to produce on paper what he saw in his mind.  I couldn’t get over how skilled he was in developing the film to get the crispness and contract in the photographs, especially back in the 20’s and 30’s.  It was worth the trip!  The Paine is such a pretty place anyway, even in the rain.

We stopped at Zuppa’s for a delicious lunch, then headed home to spend the rest of the day watching college football.  It was a lazy day and I didn’t get much sewing done.  I only made a little progress on the Piebirds blocks.  I’m so close to finishing them.  We’ll be taking Jen back down to Madison tomorrow so I probably won’t get much done then either.