Oops.

This weekend was super eventful or busy or, I don't know what I want to call it, but I definitely enjoyed being at home and getting stuff done.

I can't remember if I mentioned it, but we hired painters last year and they were... not good.   So it's taken me a year, but I finally (almost - I have three touch ups) finished painting the master bath.
And then we hired a handyman earlier this year that was pretty decent;  he told us his specialty was doors and we wanted to replace some doors (from the garage outside, from the back deck outside, and the front door).    What we neglected to clarify was the painting.   I thought the doors would be installed and painted.   Only apparently not.   So I've been super lazy about finishing the doors all the way (painting the inside and out, jambs and all).    This weekend, I was going to finish the patching and painting that I've been mad about (I want to work on the fun projects like stenciling!!!).

Anyway, Saturday morning I had planned to get up early, take Tiny to the lake for a walk, and then get going on projects, but I overslept and it's been entirely too hot to go on a 7 mile hike.  So I went outside to water the garden, only I found Japanese beetles (ugh) on the hibiscus plants I hadn't gotten around to tearing out.   I knew they were on the crabapple tree, and so I looked around, and sure enough, they're freaking everywhere.

So I watered, cut down the hibiscus (to minimize enticing plants), weeded, reorganized, and basically sweat a lot for a couple of hours.    And *then* started working on house stuff.

And then I got tired of house stuff (I painted the front and back doors and patched the wall in the front hallway) and decided to make those wall hanging blocks for my Victoria Sampler state hearts.

And I didn't pay attention... and when I was cutting I felt a suddenly thick slice and (rightly) panicked.    And found this:

Oops

I tried to find ways to patch it back together, but nothing was going to work, and luckily it was something small, so I decided to just order the VS chartbook (I had gotten this as a kit way back in the day) and just redo the stupid thing.    I also decided to go ahead and cut the pieces I would need to finish it as a wall hanging, because why not at this point, right?

But I did manage to not slice the rest of the states and get them sewed together.   Where I also discovered that I'd chosen directional fabric for three out of the four states!

This is the Little Golden Books fabric I found last week that I was so happy with.  I lived in California as a wee kiddo.

Because Cactus.   I love cacti.

And Hydrangeas because they are my favorite favorite thing about moving to NC.   I've never lived anywhere else where I could grow them, so I'm so excited to be planting them all over the place :)

And then finally, I decided to go ahead and put together the wall hanging block for the gift I want to make.  The recipient has no idea I have a blog (pretty sure), so I can show it off here (though not anywhere on social media).    I'm super happy with how the colors came out on this one, and I have to admit that if this had been the one I cut through, I would've likely lost my frelling mind ;)

So that's it for the weekend update.   I did a bit more work on Sunday (painting the bathroom, hanging the window cling on the side windows, etc.)  I'm hoping to finish the bathroom and front hallway this week/weekend, and then I'll have more time for stitching/sewing/goofing off.

I am really hoping for one last quiet weekend before social and doggie things start up again.   I think my next stretch of quiet should be in August, thankfully :)

Not June WIPocalypse ;)

I was going to update with a WIPocalypse for June, only to discover that I have not made any progress on my WIPocalypse pieces like I thought I did (oops!)   Which, of course means that time must be flying if I made that progress a couple of months ago and didn't even notice!  haha.

However, I did end up sewing a bunch (I didn't mean to, I swear!), so I do have some progress to report beyond Zenia.

The first is the Diamond Tile block that Bonnie Hunter designed and can be found in the May/June ’18 issue of Quiltmaker.

I have a small mandala like piece that I would like to finish for a dear family member, but I didn't want to frame it.   I saw that block and thought it would make an excellent finish for the piece!   Unfortunately (?)   The center block is only 3" square (the whole thing is 7" square), and my piece is just under 6" so I had to spend some time mathing.

And then I decided to use some fat quarters I had originally bought for my quilted sewing books.   I think I have more than enough of those, though, and don't mind using it up.   So I did the mock up, discovered that I suck at mathing triangles (I misapplied the math of the short legs of my isosceles triangles to the hypotenuse)... I also figured out that even though I was trying to keep the proportions the same, I preferred the strips along the border of the center square to be a bit skinnier.  But I finished it, huzzah!  (and now I have my math right... but I only wasted one fat quarter).   Most of the fabrics are Tula Pink, so they're a bit busy, but I kind of love it...

My goal is to get the cross stitch piece fully finished this weekend (since my dining table is already trashed out with my sewing stuff).    I'll show it off when it's done because I know the fam doesn't read (if they even know about!) my blog :)

I'm tempted to make a few more of these and use them for a mat on my wine-bar/rack.... 

One of the things I bought in Phoenix at Mulqueen's was a pre-cut kit.   Cutting is my very least favorite part of quilting (heck, I think it's the only thing I don't like), so while I said "hey, let's just sew one step,"  I ended up doing half the the blocks!  They're log-cabins, so they're super easy and fun to assembly line sew.

I really like the colors for a summer table runner.  It's designed to be a tiny quilt or a foot of the bed thing, but I'll just play with the blocks to get them in the right configuration for my table.   The extras (if there are any) can just become other mats.

So that's it for my non-WIPocalypse, but hey, crafting!   I'm super happy to get back to my machine.   My only regret was that I didn't listen to an audiobook while I did it (I kept telling myself, "just one more thing and then I'll take care of [whatever] chores" haha).

First Paper Piecing

I totally forgot!  I also have my first attempt at (foundation) paper piecing.  I saw it in the Quiltville Facebook group and decided to give it a whirl with a fat quarter bundle of Halloween fabrics that have been hanging around in my stash.  I used the print out from Generations Quilt Patterns.

I can't wait to do more!  I'm thinking of doing a table runner with these fabrics.  Maybe I'll mix one of them up with more than three colors.

Oh, and just for giggles, I finally got my TV wall mounted.  It's on a articulating arm so that it can come straight out, or turn 180 in either direction (and tip down), but my favorite thing was installing an outlet behind it so I can hide the wiring.

Update! And sewing; and other reasons for not stitching.

It's been a bit since my last update, and part of that is because I haven't stitched.    Instead of stitching I've been mostly working on the house; though I did do a little sewing.

And this happened:

Her name is Freyja and she was found as a stray.  We think she's ~6mos, and she's the cutest thing.  Mona wasn't very appreciative of her at first, but they get along fine and Mona even jumps around and plays with her once in a while (particularly in the yard).  I swore I wouldn't get a puppy, but wanted an older dog, and she's reminding me why, but she's too cute to stay mad at for long.   It wasn't until I was taking some photos of her that I noticed she has heterochromia (different colored eyes), and, well, she doesn't really let me stitch much ;)   She seems to have rottie and lab in her, maybe some terrier, and I'm hoping to do one of those doggie-dna tests just for fun.

We also replaced all of the (external) doors in the house, and I didn't realize that it did not include painting, so any time the weather is remotely decent, I'm trying to get the interior/exterior painted.  Some day, I swear, I'll get back to stitching.  I'm hoping to IHSW this weekend - we'll see.

But!  I did get a bit of sewing done.  I had to put my sewing machine away for a puppy shower/gaming party, but I think I'm ready to get back to sewing so I can finish off my Hearts Across America banner.

Here's my Tiles Quilt all bound and done:

Folded and looking quite nice on the back of the couch.  I'm super pleased with the colors, but I'll still be using the same pattern for another layer cake I have sitting around (maybe, there's another pattern I'm eyeing as well).

The back of the quilt; I wanted to use one of the little rosebud prints, but I couldn't find it.  This is using the Boundless line - the house brand for Craftsy, I was pretty pleased with the fabric.

And I used the Compositions jelly roll I bought in Vegas to make a modified Jelly Roll Race quilt.  Instead of doing the plain jelly roll, I split every other fabric and lined the wide strip with the skinny strip and then jelly-roll-raced it, just for fun, and I think it came out pretty well, too.

I really liked the map/newsprint fabric in the roll, so I found some on clearance and ordered it for the backing.

I'm thinking of doing a Carpenter Star pattern for the Ruby Fleur fabric and the Two Step for the Space Otters (spirit animals by Tula Pink) that I got at the quilt show.  It looks like I might actually pull off the "less unused fabric by the end of the year" goal that I had!  Now I just need to get around to stitching, or at least training the pupper to let me stitch ;)

Oh, and fun fact - I had another one of those mystery spam posts, turns out that it's because I had the "post from email" turned on, and they used that.   Which is also why I didn't get an email about the blog post posting; it presumed I sent it.  I turned off the post-from-email, and that shouldn't happen again.  I'm just glad I wasn't actually hacked or anything.

My Christmas table runner

I posted the gifts I had created for the inlawseseses a while ago,   While I was working on them, I took scraps and turned the scraps into a table runner for me.

I'm quite happy with how it ultimately turned out.  Now I'll have a table runner for the next holiday season!

MOAR BOWL HOLDERS!

Probably a little ridiculous to keep posting these, buuut, I probably don't care what people think about it. ;)

I made another set of microwave bowl holders, only this time they're for me!  I was so excited that I took pictures before I even cleaned up the chalk lines, haha.

Tiles quilt top is done!

So I stayed up wayyyyyy too late on Saturday finishing up the quilt top.  I thought it was about 2 hours earlier than it was when I looked at the time and realized that maybe, just maybe, I should have gone to bed a couple of hours ago... oops.

But I got it done!   The only downside was that I thought I had already purchasing backing material for it, but I had not.  I do have binding for it, so I placed an order on ye olde craftsy (where I bought the kit) for a few yards for backing.   I like this kit/material colorway, so instead of driving to the quilt store (not so close to home), I went with the "send it to my front door" option.   Likely, it'll arrive while I'm out of town, but that's OK, I'll be ready for it when I return (if so).

Excuse the bad lighting, it was nearly 2am ;)

I really like the taupes and greys, they work well for my mostly-grey living room and should provide sufficient camouflage for the ever-present Mona hairs.

Just because I'm doing things...

I've been working on my throw/lap quilt every night.   I'm starting to getting a bit tired of it, but I wanted it to get done before the next absurd cold snap next week.

Although really, I've set a deadline that I'd like to get it done before I play the Darkening of Tristram event on D3, and I'd like to do that now. ;)

Wednesday Night:
I finished the first of three parts/strips for each block, and then I was deciding on the pieces for the next strip (these blocks are essentially three asymmetric strips, the first of 4 fabrics, the second is 2 and the last is 3).  I'm trying to keep any of the blocks from having the same two fabrics in them.   I think I will succeed with all but one block (I hadn't tried to do that yet, so it's not like I couldn't have, but I'm not ripping the seams to redo it, I think it's fine).

Thursday Night:
I had two of the three strips sewn together.  I sewed the two pieces and then the two strips.  This was my successful(!) attempt to get the last three fabrics on there so that I had no two fabrics the same in the final set (with the rest of the block).   There will be 20 blocks total in this quilt, so it took a bit of space to make sure I could see everything.

Bonus shot of my Janome 405.  My grandmother bought it for me as an intro machine back in 2003 or so, when I expressed interest in sewing.  We were at the repair/sales shop picking up her machine (getting a tune up) and when she asked the repair guy what machine he would suggest, he mentioned this one.  And damn if it hasn't been a workhorse.    I would like to get another machine with a longer throat sometime, but I'll never give this one up.  The crazy stuff I've sewn (a lot of it VERY heavy duty) through has amazed me, and this little guy has only had/needed one tune up the entire time I've had it.  I just keep her oiled and she's happy.

I think I'll finish sewing the blocks tonight, whether I sew them together is another story;  knowing me, I'll stay up too late to get it done.  I have plenty of audiobook to go through, so at least I'll keep myself entertained.

#WIPWednesday

I threw together a quickie rug mug from scraps last night.
I was cutting the first 20 blocks (it's a lap quilt made from 40 layer cake pieces) and realized that the leftover scraps would make a cute little piece.

Christmas/Sewing update

It's been a while since I blogged, but not a lot of crafting has been going on.  I've been working on the house some, and just generally trying to survive the holidays.   And to be honest, seasonal-affective is a bear, y'all.

Back in early November, I went to the Houston International Quilt show and bought some Christmassy fabrics to make into table runners for the inlaws, and lo', they were done on time!

They are similar (inlaws being exes, I had to make two), but they're different.   My only rules when I was pulling the fabrics were that I couldn't do two gold/white or red strips in a row, but I just pulled randomly.   These were way wider, so I trimmed the strips off and I'll be making a table runner for myself from the left overs.  I'm binding it now, and I'll share later (too late for Christmas decorating, but that's OK, I wasn't in the "Christmas spirit" this year anyway).

And here are some close ups, I just quilted it in the ditches:

The other thing I made for Christmas were these microwave bowl holder things that seemed to be everywhere at the quilt show.  They're super easy to make and useful for using up a bunch of material that's been hanging around for whatever purpose I originally bought them for.   The kicker was to make them using cotton only.  I wanted to make Christmas themed ones, but all of my holiday fabric has metal in them (oh, and don't forget to skip the polyester thread if you're lazy AF like me and tend to not change out the threads on the machine after doing garment sewing - hah).  I used the tutorial from happyhourstitches.

That last one is using my CalamityWare bowls for measure.  These bowls are a bit smaller than I'm used to, but pretty deep, so I was very happy with the scale.

That's about the sum total of my fun-time.  I'm planning on staying in this cold, cold weekend and just reading through the Taltos Series by Steven Brust (I have not read them in a long time!) to take it easy (with some homemade eggnog liberally spiked with bourbon or rum).

I think my next sewing project is going to be the Tiles High Society quilt from craftsy.  It's a really easy block pattern using layer cakes that I'm looking forward to. I saw the fabric and knew it would be perfect for my living room.   I'll have to think about whether I want to get it finished before the really nasty cold sets into the area next week.  There nothing like relaxing on a couch with a warm blanket, fire in the fireplace, and books on the ready.

The other big project was widening the tv-niche above the fireplace so that my 55gal would fit in it.   I got a new Eheim canister filter so I could do a bit less filter maintenance on it, and I also did a fair bit of re-scaping, and I spent some time changing up the driftwood to make a statement piece.   I'll get some fissidens in the future for that,  mostly, I'm looking forward to my amazon swords growing back out (the move and subsequent 6months in a bucket was pretty rough on them - they're in the corners and behind the driftwood).

No fish, yet, as I'm letting it cycle (why it's still a little cloudy there - that was a couple of weeks ago).  It has a fluorite base capped with pool sand, and of course the plants and driftwood.   The two bags of "stuff" are my biological media from the old filters, so that the tank can cycle and settle quickly.  I'm thinking about adding in the fish (tomorrow?  next week?) to see how it's settling.  The ammonia/nitrate/nitrite levels are where they are supposed to be, so I thin it's safe, but I have a feeling my 20gal (where the fish are living now) is suffering from Old Tank Syndrome, and I'd like to get that healthy before I transplant my gouramis back to the 55gal.

So much for those stitching plans (I'll be back for the WIPocalypse round up).

Oh, and here's my Longhorn Santa on the porch after just a wee bit of snow a few weeks ago.

Quilted Needlebooks

Once upon a time, someone who will remain nameless, created a bunch of needlebooks for a get together and I was one of the lucky recipients!

And it was awesome.   I mean, I adore hand made gifts, like any crafter, but this needlebook has been in constant use since I got it.   It has pockets on the front and back, and I keep a pair of needles and whatever threads I feel like in the pocket.   I also have a magnet on the pocket so that the scissors don't move around too much, and just because, really.

I like to either pre-thread a bunch of needles and keep them there for use (on a project that uses a lot of one color) or, if I'm doing something else, I might use part of a thread, tuck it and snip it, and just park the needle with the rest of the thread for later use (I would do this a lot with Thanksgiving Fairy since I didn't want to waste the overdyed threads).

My current book in use.

But what I really decided was that I needed multiple needlebooks, so they could each live with a project forever and ever and I wouldn't have to change out the needles or thread, or even worse, try to function without a needle book.  So I bugged dear friend, she gave me the tutorial link from Sew She Sews and I eventually went to town.

Most of the books are made from my favorite left over fabric materials.

The two Cthulhu fabrics were left over from when I was making bags to use as "Monster cups" during Arkham/Eldritch Horror,  the puppy fabric is left over from a duffel bag I made (it was supposed to be for Mona's stuff when I traveled, but is so huge that I use it for my weekender).  The grey fabric is probably my favorite fabric of all time that I should probably just buy the entire bold of from the quilting store (seriously, so much love)

The wine themed fabrics are just fat quarters I picked up.  I had actually made a 7th needlebook, it had grapes/grapevines as the cover, but a friend saw what I was working on (I was attaching the snaps) and she fell in love, and I'm a sucker, so I gave her that one.

I just did simple lines for the quilting on most of them, realizing one book in why you really, really want to get that walking foot out.   But I couldn't just do a regular stitch on two of them.

On the dog fabric, I just couldn't bear to stitch over the cute Mona-esque puppy face (which ended up there by accident, I didn't even fussy cut or anything), so I went with a diagonal in both directions that left the puppy face bare.

And on this grey fabric, which I'm so in love with, I decided to go a little bit wavy because it seemed to fit the motion of the fabric much better.

So that was my big project for the past week or so.   I "need" to get back to Zodiac Mystery since it's now March (I bet I can finish this month's bit while binge watching House of Cards this weekend), and I was working on a different project at home before that (another box on BoInk), and I just wanted to have the needlebooks for the projects ready.

And just for some fun, here's my #WIPWednesday - he's filling in a bit.

Thanksgiving weekend progress

Thanksgiving was pretty fun.  Didn't get anything done, but I wasn't at work, which is a win, right?

I did not do any shopping this year (I don't usually, at best I'll have something I want to buy and I might wait for BlackFriday sale if it means I can get it for a bit cheaper).

My "Crazy" Black Friday amounted to:

• a text book (Amazon had their 30% off one book coupon)
• three audiobooks from Audible
• 2 dishes from Calamityware (well, they had been budgeted for this pay period anyway and I was hoping for a BlackFriday sale - sadly their sale was getting their puzzle for free, but now I'm down to only 2 of their dishes that I don't have yet!  yay!).  

I did go to Ikea for a part for my LadyCave desk, and oddly, it was a ghost town on Friday; I went because we were driving by, not because I'm naturally a glutton for punishment, so I was stressing crowds that weren't actually there, haha.

Saturday we hosted a game day/cocktail party.  Basically, gaming all day, but I had fixin's for cocktails.   I had a really good sangria, and I decided to also focus on bourbon/whiskey drinks because I was in the mood for it.   I managed to drink a couple of Spiced Apple Manhattans, which I quite liked.

Sunday I bought some fabric for the Bonnie Hunter Mystery Quilt (Allietare), and I finally used some fabric remnants I grabbed when I was at JoAnn for Halloween costume goodies for a bit of home decor.

So here's the fabric!  Not all/enough, but it's supposed to be scrappy, so I went on a fat quarter binge, except for the grey, that's supposed to be a "constant" and the red, because I just adore that fabric;  I figure if I run out of a color scheme, I can just get more FQs, since it's not all supposed to match:

And here are my new remnant couch pillows!

And yet another project

So during the great house-deconstruction, new floor-a-palooza, I've decided to take some time to revamp a few things, fix a few things, donate and get rid of a few things...

On of the things I decided I wanted to do was "fix" a china doll I have in my possession.    When my grandmother died (well, actually, even before that), I became the keeper of the antique and family things.   Like my great-great-grandmother's furniture, my great^3 or ^4 grand-cestors' letters and pictures and what not.

Sereiously, I have a wedding gift from 1865.

One of the things I found in a box was a china doll from the ancestress that was actually married in 1865.  I also have the letters between her and her beau during the Civil War while he was away, and letters from her future sister-in-law complaining about the lack of males and how bored they were with the whole war "thing."

But I decided that what I really want to do is jazz up the china doll.  She's just in her silk undies, those undies being a little worse for the wear, but the doll seems to be in good shape.   I contacted a friend who knows a bit about china dolls and asked her for some help sourcing patterns.    The doll already lives on display in my antique hutch, but I just feel like she could be prettier.

But this is what I'm starting with -

The whole doll in my hands.  The legs and arms are also porcelain/china and seem to be in decent shape.

The head piece, with the blouse pulled down to show off the attach point

The arms

Legs & booties

The whole girl with a tape- measure for size.

I have no idea what I'm doing, I certainly have no official documentation, but since she's a part of my family, I would at least like to showcase her a little better.   I have some patterns/dresses pinned/saved (the pictures mostly for ideas of colors and fabrics).

From what I've seen/read with the googles, the hair/head style/shape tracks with 1850s dolls (maybe "Greiner" style?).  The back is molded but there is no ribbon or anything, other than the hair (the back of the head molded in waves much like the sides).   I don't know (or really care) if it's worth anything, just a family antique that I'd like to display nicely, but I didn't want anything crazy out of style with what she should be wearing.

Hopefully, someday, when I'm not going home and spending every waking hour trying to put the house back together again  I'll get back to the approx. six thousand projects I have going on, but this seems like a fun (if not probably frustrating) one.