March Madness

March is the perfect month for quilting - for three reasons. First, there is curling. Second, there is basketball. And third, there is retreats. In a perfect world, one can go to a retreat in March and watch either curling or basketball on the TV. Now, given that I'm in Canada, curling is a better bet, but ..... the retreat I went on had no TV. No internet. Not even cell phone service.

We were at the Circle Square Ranch south of Austin. It was the worst weekend so far this year for travel. We had snow, then more snow, then blowing snow on top of snow. Most of the others got there on Friday, but I didn't make it until Saturday.

You can see why.



That was the good road. Our main highway was closed, so I had driven from Winnipeg on the secondary highway, then up a provincial road and onto what is generously called an access road. There was at least once when I was wishing I was a tractor.
(And me hearing my brother's voice in my head, "You know, Karen, if you leave the road and rollover, all that stuff in your car isn't tied down and it will go flying." Thanks John. Here's me driving with my hands firmly on the steering wheel with visions of cartwheeling ironing boards and sewing machines in an endless loop through my brain.

Wonderful weekend, though. I didn't get much done, but I started on the mystery quilt:



And here is what it looks like now. I can't decide whether to put on another border, so I'm letting it sit for a bit.



Now. Onwards and upwards to finishing the Newspaper Pinwheels quilt. More about that later.

The Baptism

You know what I like about a "heads up"? When I get one. Which I didn't last weekend. On Friday, an innocuous e-mail arrived with an "oops - we have a baptism on Sunday." A boy. I had been working for a girl, thinking we wouldn't have a baptism until Easter Saturday.

The KISS principle can be applied to quilting - no half-square triangles, no matching. I stole the idea from Easy Quilts (the quilt is called Sunny Days) and used Winnie the Pooh fabrics to make it work for a one year old boy.

And yes, Virginia, there was a quilt.



All quilted, all bound. I hope they enjoy it.

More work on the pinwheel quilts

They keep growing. I think I have enough and then I sit down with my little pencil and my graph paper and work out how big a quilt I need if I'm going to do a bed quilt for a queen size bed (mine!!). This one will be too big for me to quilt myself.

And it's still in the making triangles stage. Thank goodness for triangle papers -



What you see is a pile of pinwheel blocks, a pile of pinwheels and more ready to be sewn.

I need this one done soon. we've been married almost five year and I haven't made a quilt for us yet. Is that grounds for something?

Strippy Newspaper Pinwheels

Back before Christmas, I made a swack (that's a technical term) of pinwheels from a slew (another technical term) of black, red and white fabrics I have, most of them from Keepsake Quilting's scrap bags. (Have I mentioned that I really like their scrap bags?). With one square of each fabric, I ended up with 168 pinwheels, 2 each of 84 combinations. I intended to use them for a quilt I call Newspaper Pinwheels (Black and White and Re(a)d all over). (Bad joke.) (Bad old joke.) I'm still working on that quilt, but since I've redrafted it several times, I'm not quite sure where I'm going. It uses half the pinwheels.

The challenge then, is to use the rest of the pinwheels - and so, I am. These are some of the pinwheels:



And this is how I started - I cut a swack (another of those technical terms) of quarter square triangles, so that I could make a strippy quilt.



The Undercover Strippers got together today for a great day of sewing at the church.



By the end of the day, I have five strips. My layout says I need seven, but I am pretty sure I'll stop at six. This quilt is already much bigger than I had planned, and six strips will be plenty enough.



This one's for me - and will be in our quilt show in October, 2011. The girls laugh and tell me I can have my own little red and black corner. With half-square triangles.

Go, Sens, Go.

Quilting to deadline

The wedding is Saturday, January 29 - yes, that is this Saturday. I had my time all mapped out. Borders on by the Friday night - quilted by the end of the weekend, bound by Monday night.

Oh, right - that thing about best laid plans etc.

I got the Friday night right - this is as far as I got:



All basted by Saturday morning - after having to go to Fabricland to get more batting. Mine was just a teeny, tiny, eentsy bit too small, but too small is too small.

And then I hit the machine:



Now, you must understand that I'm only smiling because I'm grateful to not have thrown the machine, quilt et al across the room. You know what quilting on a small throat machine is like: it's like this - inch by inch across the quilt - jamming it all the way. I have no patience. I really have no patience when all I can think of is "shoulda bought the home quilter. Shoulda bought the home quilter."



Now to the really good news. I phoned my daughter to tell her that the quilt would be in the purolator by Wednesday morning (at a miserable expense, but when was it ever different when it comes to your kids?) and she said (God love her), "Mom, I don't think I'll give it to them until after the wedding."

The weight. It lifted from my shoulders then and there. You see, I sewed all day Sunday at home, except for going to church. By midnight, I could barely see straight - which was when I saw the entire block of quilting that had great tangled loopies on the bottom.

I ripped them out and went to bed.

Now I can finish with style.

Irish Chain Blues - we're getting there

The centre is finished. This is my last trip to the ironing board before putting on the borders.



It's set five by seven - 13 1/2 inch blocks. It's been a lot of sewing straight lines, getting up early very morning to get it done. My deadline is this weekend, because it's got to get into the mail to get to Erica on time.

So.... this is where I spent my morning - at the wonderful Kickass Country Store in Plumas, Manitoba. I have a great stash, but it's mostly fat quarters. My idea of a big cut of fabric is .4 of a metre - never enough for a border.



So off I went - in the frigid cold of a Manitoba January. I've always wondered about living in a country where the "hot spot" has a temperature of minus 28.




Beautiful downtown Plumas. It's cold.

We're making progress

My Irish Chain Blues quilt - we're making progress. This is one of my 2010 must finish projects, because I've promised it to my daughter. All the main blocks are done and now I'm finishing up the "connector" blocks.



There are a total of 18 - this for a quilt set 5 by 7.

The connector blocks are in the making -



What you see on the chair are the finished main blocks, some of the connector blocks and the strip sets for the connector blocks. Lots of sewing straight lines and then cutting things apart. The good news so far is that no half-square triangles to square up.

My friends won't recognize me without half-square triangles.

the PhD Challenge

I found the PhD challenge a day too late (that's what happens when I travel to Ottawa to visit my daughter for Christmas, but don't take my laptop), but I'm going to read along and do it anyway.

No photos - but I will get them up and onto the blog.

I hope an almost new project fits within the spirit. Just before I went to Ottawa, Erica asked me for a quilt for her friend who is getting married. I've cut the strips, which means it's started before 2011!!

Photos tomorrow. Today - January 1 - we clean the house.

Edited to add a photo today. This is the first of the strata for the Irish Chain.