Finishes...and lots of travel

I've enjoyed seeing lots of family in the last few weeks so haven't been too productive in the sewing room.  But gosh has it been fun.  My boys showed me a wonderful time in Seattle last week-end!

(Max went into the html on the blog here and widened everything, making it easier for you to read, I hope!)  Max is on the left...he works as a software engineer at Amazon; Chad is on the right, a senior at the Foster School of Business at the University of Washington.  They live 3 miles apart from each other and get together often.    That makes this mom REALLY happy!  ;-)

Because I am heading for the Empty Spools conference at Asilomar next week-end, I have some finish work to accomplish.  As "Artist in Residence" I do want to have my most current work to show and tell about.

So "Rainy Spring" is now done....

I took a long time picking out the backing at Fabric Depot, but finally settled on two fabrics to layer together, and aqua poly satin and some glittery netting!  It looks nice and rainy but it does leave a bit of a glitter trail.

To bind it, I folded the back over to the front and stitched it into place, manipulating the fabric in the corners to some semblance of a miter.  I left the edge raw, then covered it with some narrow trim (more glitter!) and a row of herringbone...

I wouldn't say this is aces technically, but I do like the overall effect...from a distance!

So this is now done, except for sewing on the dreaded sleeve!

Now I am working on the Cowgirl CQ....

This is my kind of machine quilting...I simply pinned my top to a washed microfleece blanket from my local BiMart ($20 for a kingsized), trimmed it to size, and am quilting in the ditch with clear thread, strait lines, no free motion anything, even stitches...
I would have liked a slightly better color but BiMart is close and this is going to be a working quilt on a ranch....not precious!  And I have to say that the top quilted onto microfleece this way yields more of a "bedspread" weight than a quiltlike feel, and it is REALLY nice!  I have one on my bed and I love it.

So I'll be quilting all day until my husband calls me out to the garden to help plant the onions...

This is Robert's idea of a blank design wall!

I definitely plan on blogging from Asilomar, so next time I'll be posting from beautiful Pacific Grove, CA...
Bye for now!

Cowgirl CQ....Top Finished

This quilt grew to be 65" X 73", much to my surprise.
I had enjoyed making that central section, I liked the piecing process and the colors, wanted to do more...so I kept adding on to it.
And on!
But that is because I realized that I wanted this to be a functional, cozy quilt.  I want to use it.

Next time I will be more deliberate about the proportions of everything...this time the denim strips were limited in width (too narrow, IMO) by the fact that my husband would let me cut up only two pairs of his old jeans.  But I wanted only HIS jeans in there, so that's why I didn't go to the thrift store to get more.
There is a red and black faded flannel in the piecing from his favorite old shirt from our dairy days, too.

Not this one, but something similar, from those good old days. (Note that I am the one covered with manure.  It was always that way. We are sitting here on the steps of the sauna he built, the year we got married, 1981. Crazy kids!)

Anyways, this quilt is about ranch days, our old one and also my cousin Tracy's.  The aesthetic is hers, and some of the fabrics too (and one of her shirts.)  As I was making this, I thought a lot about her.

Setting up my temporary styrofoam "sewing table" was such a help.  I could lay these large pieces out flat, and pin into it as I measured, then going back and securing the pins.  Here is a YouTube about how I made it.

How did I ever live without those flower pins?

When it came time to add the rayon plaid woven ribbon, I knew it wasn't "hefty" enough in weight.

I just happened to have on hand a roll of C & T's "Make it Simpler" fusible interfacing on a 1 1/2" roll.  You can find it here. I gave the ribbon a double layer.

Once everything was assembled, the quilt top did not exactly lie flat.  Frankly, my whole approach had been a bit too slapdash for the intense kind of quality control that goes into a competition quilt. I was just having fun and experimenting!

But I did want it as flat as possible, so I did some judicious nipping and tucking.

One of my favorite elements in this quilt is how the old blocks got pieced in, sometimes in entirety, sometimes in part.  Their vibe and look are really important to me these days.  There is a lot of genuinely old fabric in there, too.  Not repro--old.

I had hoped the straight strips would provide structure and repetition to the otherwise complete chaos of the piecing.  But next time they need to be wider.
Still, this will be a great couch quilt!

I plan on simply machine quilting in the ditch between all the horizontal and vertical bars, with no handwork at all going on.
And--oh dear--I've been rather active on Ebay lately buying more old blocks....

Cowgirl C.Q.

I started this project last fall in my Curved Piecing class at the Victorian Stitchery Retreat.  When I got home, I did more work on it, which you can read about here and here.
While I was waiting for some ribbon to arrive for completing my Herringbone Hearts project, I decided to add to what I am now calling my Cowgirl C.Q.

I call it that because it is inspired by my cousin Tracy, a cowgirl down in New Mexico.  A few of the fabrics are from her, including one of her old shirts.  The vintage fabrics and blocks mixed in with the reproduction fabrics and the denim is an aesthetic that definitely reminds me of Tracy...

So I got out the fabrics that I used last time and added a few more that evoke Tracy to me, and got to work. 

Here is my pieced chunk, most of the way done.  I use a basic collage technique to add my patches, pinning them in place and sewing them down with clear thread in a zig zag applique.  This chunk is about 18" X 31".
When it was done, I cut it in half and added it to my project from November.
Now it looks like this:

It has been great fun using some of my burgeoning trim stash, as well as treasured bit of lace I've had a long time.  Some of my husband's worn out clothes contributed fabric too (that red and black plaid is from an old flannel shirt from our dairy days.)  And of course, a few butterflies flew in....

The ribbon has arrived so I will put this away again for now, but it's nice to know it is waiting for me....

CQ Strips....continued

We came back last night from a lovely Thanksgiving down in Warner Springs, California.  Today I just had to sew the CQ Strips project together. This measures 22" X 24" and really will make a great pillow.

I could spend months doing variations on this theme and technique!  It is like my Bars and Stripes from last fall (which I sleep under and love every single day.)

I did want to mention that the Mark Quilts are all finished and were given over to Lee, her daughters Ashley and Madison, and her father Don over Thanksgiving.  (Lee will bring Manny's to him...Manny is Mark's dad.)  It was a private affair so I didn't take any pictures...but I will say they were very, very happy with their quilts, and I was so glad to be able to make them.

I have one more trip before the holidays get underway: Thursday I'm off to Newark to shoot an episode of Quilt Out Loud with Jodie Davis and Mark Lipinski of QNN-TV.  It is going to be very wild and fun, full of surprises I have no doubt.  I hope they'll let me blog about my experience!  Wish me luck that I am not too dorky.....    ;-)

CQ Strips

That class sample from the last post wasn't meant to stand alone...There are several options for cutting up a whole cloth collage/appliqued CQ...into borders, into blocks....or into strips, to be alternated with fabric strips.

I just thought denim would be good here, some of my husband's jeans that wore out over the summer.  And lace of course, along with.

I don't have time to sew this up before leaving for our family Thanksgiving get together in California tomorrow...but I think it will make a really neat pillow when I get home.

Meanwhile, have a lovely holiday everyone...and thanks for being so kind to come visit me here.....xoxo