Gotta love the Upper Peninsula!  100% chance of snow tonight, tomorrow, tomorrow night, and Saturday, with 12 to 20 inches expected, all told.  Oof-da!  (And I’m not even Norwegian!)  We managed to miss the last big storm the Weather Service forecast, but I don’t think we’ll miss this one.  Just looked at the radar, and the tell-tale bands of lake-effect snow are already showing up.  Oooh, it just started to snow!  And it’s really coming down…

I know what I’ll be doing tomorrow! 

But between the shoveling and snow blowing, I’ll be finishing up Sarah’s quilt.  I only have one border left to quilt, and then I can square it up and bind it.  Yay!  I’ve enjoyed working on it, but I’m ready for my next project.

Why do they always get an itch whenever I want to take a picture?

When I stuck my head out the door to get the mail a few minutes ago, I saw one of our many squirrels in the big oak tree by our driveway.  That’s the neighbor’s house in the background.  Mr. (or is it Ms?) Squirrel was sitting in the tree eating an acorn and looking cute, but by the time I managed to snap his picture, he’d put his head down to scratch his ear or something.  Drat!

The cat does it to me all the time, too.  Animals must see me coming when I have a camera!

It was cold on the porch, but I tried again.  This time he’s sitting on the ground,  having his snack.  Better shot!  I do like the telephoto button on my camera.  Otherwise, all you’d see would be a little gray dot against a big tree!

Sarah’s quilt is nearing completion!  I just have one block left to quilt, and then three border sections.  Then I can bind it, and give it a much needed trip through the washer and drier before mailing it off to my baby.  Woo-hoo!  I’ll take pictures when it’s done so I can show it off.

So now the question is, what’s next?  I started a scrap quilt last year and made 30 blocks.  I’m somewhat challenged when it comes to making my blocks the same size.  No matter how carefully I cut and sew, they still seem to have a mind of their own!  The blocks were supposed to finish at six inches, but they range from five-and-a-half to five-and-seven-eighths.  Sigh.  This is why I love improvisational quilting so much!  No need to worry about this sort of thing!

The quilt from hell

I had tried sewing the blocks together into a top for a lap quilt, which was a bit of a challenge because of the size differences in the blocks.  I managed to get 25 of them sewn together, but I was disappointed in how it was coming out, so I abandoned it in my Closet Of No Return.

I was digging around in there the other day and unearthed it.  Since I hated the way the top looked, I spent a couple of hours in front of the TV taking it apart.  This isn’t a bad thing to do while watching NCIS reruns.  (Mark Harmon is a hottie, and Ziva David (Cote de Pablo) is one of my favorite TV characters, so I watch this show a LOT.)

OK, back to square one, or should I say block one?  I laid the blocks out in the floor and took a picture of them.  What should I do with them?  I could use them as the center of log-cabin type blocks and sew strips around the outside edges (like what I did with Sarah’s quilt).  This would make them bigger, and I could square them up, too.

Another option is to cut each block in half diagonally and add an inch-wide strip to the diagonal cut.  Then I could sew a half-square triangle to it, and make an entirely new block.  This would certainly tone them down a bit, especially if I used the same fabric for the new half-square triangles, while still keeping the diagonal movement.  After squaring them up, I could arrange them in a barn-raising pattern.

Or I could cut the blocks into quarter-square triangles, and make pinwheel blocks by sewing them to solid color half-square triangles.

Anybody have any other ideas?  Leave a comment, and let me know what you think!

Before quilting; pretty, but flat and one-dimensional

Don’t you just love how a flat, one-dimensional block of patchwork suddenly comes to life when you start quilting it? Something that was flat and lifeless is magically transformed, with a soft texture that just begs you to touch it.

Can you tell I’m jazzed? I’ve been working away diligently on Sarah’s quilt. There are nine blocks, and I have six done. It’s slow work, what with horsing around with the walking foot, but it sure does look nice when the block is done. At least I only have three blocks left to do, so that’s not so bad. Then I just have to quilt the outside borders, which should go really quickly.

After quilting; suddenly it seems to come to life!

I did two blocks this morning, and was going to do another this afternoon, but wound up running to the store with my dear hubby. His wireless mouse quit working, and we had to go exchange it so he could play games on his computer tonight.

Yesterday was stormy and blustery, with about three inches of snow and lots of wind. But today it was sunny, and much warmer than I thought it would be. It was a gorgeous winter afternoon, so I took advantage of it. I scooped the snow out of the driveway and walked up to the store to pick up a few groceries.

Andrew went fishing this morning at the Chocolay River. If he goes tomorrow, I may go with him. He said it looked like a great place to go snowshoeing. I can go exploring while he tries to hook into a brown trout, or a steelhead. He nearly caught one this morning, but it got away.  So we had pizza for supper instead, which was OK, too.

Molly in her favorite spot

Here’s a shot of my favorite kitty.  She really likes this spot.  It’s warm and cozy, right in front of the heating vent!  Where else would a cat hang out in the winter?  On sunny winter days, the sun shines through the kitchen window, right onto this spot for an hour or so!  No wonder she likes it so well.

Free motion quilting seemed like a great idea this morning.  I was all set to do some really cool stuff with Sarah’s quilt.  But when I sat down to practice, Things Did Not Go Well.  I couldn’t get any control over my stitch length at all, or over where the quilting lines were going.

The problem, as you can see from my picture,  is my set-up.  I really do need a sewing table that I can set my sewing machine down into so that it’s flush with the surface.  I considered trying to put things around my sewing machine to make a flat surface to quilt on, but I’ve jury-rigged things in the past, with less than satisfactory results!

I need to save my pennies so that I can get a sewing table.  Until I can do that, I decided it’s best to save myself the frustration of making a mess (and then having to waste hours picking out a million stitches of varying lengths).  So I wimped out, and put the walking foot back on.

You’d be amazed what you can do with a walking foot.  The obvious first step was to make parallel lines of stitching on the blue sashing.  This was pretty easy, and went reasonably fast.

I still wasn’t sure what to do with the individual blocks, though.  I was going to do the borders, then come back to the blocks later, but after lunch I thought I’d try my hand at quilting the center block.

I worked around the log cabin strips in a spiral, using the walking foot.  When I came to the cats in the center, I decided to outline quilt them.

The center block was the most complicated, so I wanted to do it first to get it out of the way.  I outlined the kitties, the kitten in the carriage, the wheels, and some of the streamers.

It was pretty painstaking work, but it just proves that anything is possible, especially if you’re willing to horse around with a walking foot!  But it took less than an hour, all told, so it was still a lot faster than hand quilting it.  Plus it will go through the washer and dryer with no problems, which is important for a baby quilt!

Close-up of outlining

I’m pretty jazzed. I may even have the quilting done by the end of the week!

When I left you yesterday, I was considering how I wanted to quilt Sarah’s baby quilt.  I have a bit of a love-hate relationship with machine quilting.  I love how fast it is (this from someone who has hand-quilted a king-sized quilt–never again!), but I don’t really feel like I have much control over the process–my sewing machine is going a zillion miles an hour, and I’m just along for the ride!  And barely hanging on, at that!

Enter the new blog I just discovered–365 Days of Free Motion Quilting Filler Designs, by Leah Day.  Leah has given herself an incredible challenge:  to design a new free motion filler design every day for a whole year.

Leah herself asks the question, “Can I Create A New Free Motion Filler Design Every Day For A Year?”  Well, it looks like she’s doing it, and doing a great job of it, too.  She started in August of this year.  Not only is she coming up with all these cool designs, she also has a video of how to do each one.

She makes samples of each design, and keeps them in transparent sleeves in a three-ring binder.  Then when she’s ready to start machine quilting, she can just pull out her binder and choose what designs to use.

So my goal is to start with Day One, and work through a design each day.  I’ll end up with a binder full of designs, too.  If you’re like me, when you’re faced with the wide open spaces of a quilt needing to be quilted, you draw a blank as to what to do.  This will help solve that problem, and I’ll become a better machine quilter, too.

Leah also has tips for setting up your sewing area, and sells quilting supplies, too.

Feather stitching along sashing; will use Shadow Wave to quilt the turquoise cat sashing.

Oh yeah, what am I doing with Sarah’s quilt?  I dug up my trusty walking foot, and started out by using a feather stitch instead of quilting in the ditch.  A couple of years ago, I saw somebody in a quilt shop in Gatlinburg, TN, using a machine embroidery stitch to quilt with, instead of just doing ditch quilting.  I was intrigued, and I’ve wanted to try it ever since.  And it does look pretty cool.  I’m using yellow thread on the back, and fuschia on the front.

I’m also going to use Leah’s Shadow Waves on the sashing and borders.  I haven’t decided what to do with the cat blocks yet, but that will come.   At this point I’m thinking of stitching in the ditch along the log cabin strips in a spiral shape to the cat picture in the middle.

Close-up of cat block with Molly's tail. The Stinker Cat always moves when I try to take her picture!

Molly looking cute. This time I managed to snap her picture before she walked off!

Well, I woke up this morning expecting to have to clear at least six inches of snow from the driveway.  Surprise!  The expected snow didn’t materialize, so that was a nice Christmas present.

We got about five inches yesterday, so I shoveled the end of the driveway where the plow always dumps a load of snow, and then got out the snow blower.  I have a little electric one, which is really somewhat underpowered, but it does do the job, as long as you don’t let the snow get too deep.  I zipped through it pretty quickly, as the snow was light and fluffy.  I figured I would have to do it again today, but got a reprieve!

Andrew and I enjoyed a pretty low-key holiday.  Andrew could hear the waves from Lake Superior when he went out to the garage, and he wanted to go see the waves.  So after lunch we went out for a ride and took some pictures.

Big waves coming in at Picnic Rocks, which is only a couple of block from our house. No wonder we could hear the waves!

Waves crashing into the rocks along Lakeshore Drive. The road was closed just past here. We had to take a detour to get to Presque Isle.

Two ships at the ore dock. I don't know if they were unloading coal or being loaded with taconite (a form of iron ore). It's been pretty busy at the ore dock lately after a slow summer. The locks at Sault Ste. Marie will be closing in January for maintenance, so the mining companies need to get as much ore out as possible before then.

The waves hitting the breakwater at Presque Isle

Andrew in front of the breakwater at Presque Isle, with a wave crashing into it in the background.

I’ve been working on a baby quilt for my daughter, Sarah.  She and her husband Jared are looking forward to a new baby boy in April.  This little guy will be joining his three older brothers, Tal, Shaddy, and Kieran.

Baby quilt layered with batting and backing. Ready to put the safety pins in for machine quilting!

I layered the quilt this morning, and put the safety pins in this afternoon when we got back from our ride.  Now I have to decide how to quilt it.   Free motion or use a walking foot, and a machine embroidery stitch?  Or both?  Guess I’ll decide in the morning!

This seems like as good a title as any!  I can’t believe it’s been so long since I posted here.  My poor little blog has been sadly neglected.  Why?  Well, it’s a long story.

For nearly three years now, I’ve been putting most of my time and energy into article marketing.  For the uninitiated, article marketing involves writing articles with links to websites where people can buy something they need.  For instance, say you have a cat with a bladder infection.  If you google “bladder infections in cats,” and you find my article and read it, you can click on a link that takes you to a natural cure for bladder infections in cats.  If you buy the product, I get a commission.  Sounds easy, right?

Well, I’m here to tell you that anyone who says you can make a million dollars overnight on the internet is lying to you.  I’ve worked hard, and written many articles, and put up a whole bunch of blogs.  It took me two years of constant hard work before I finally started to make a halfway decent part-time income.  Things were finally looking up.  This year I even made enough that I have to pay self-employment tax.  Now THAT’S a bummer!

In the process though, I pretty much burned myself out on writing anything, even this blog.  I’ve struggled this year to write articles, although I did manage to keep up for a while.  But this month my revenues have tanked.  I’m not sure why.  Did Google stop indexing my articles?  Did the recession finally catch up with me?  Is it just the holiday season?  Will things improve next month?  Am I just not writing enough articles?  Good questions with no easy answers.

For two years I didn’t do much but write articles.  I didn’t quilt, weave, knit, or do much of anything, but write articles on yeast infections, hair loss, menopause, various problems afflicting cats and dogs, and other interesting topics.  No wonder I’m tired of it!

Leni Weiner had a really good post on her blog, entitled Artists and Time Management.  It really made me stop and think about what I want to spend my time doing.  She starts out by commenting on the fact that people are always saying they don’t have time to do the things they want to do.  It seems that the things you have to do take up all your time.

Leni says, “It is important to remember that we always get the important things on our lists done–we never go without dinner, the dog always gets a walk, and those with jobs always show up for work.  I think that time management can be a self esteem issue–that we don’t consider ourselves important enough to spend time in pursuit of the things that make us happy and fulfill us.  We feel guilty doing something for ourselves.”

She hit the nail on the head with that one.  I fall into the trap of thinking that I have to get all the “important” things done before I can work on my quilting .  By the time I get all the other stuff done, it’s 8 pm, and I’m too tired to even think about quilting!

I also have the idea that if I’m not making money at it, it’s not important.  This idea was reinforced by an ex-husband who didn’t think anything I did was worthwhile because it wasn’t bringing in money.  (Forget the time I spent raising a huge garden every year, all the canning and freezing, milking the goat, making cheese, doing laundry with a wringer washer and hanging it outside, raising sheep, goats, pigs, and chickens, soapmaking, etc.  But that’s another story!)

This is where the self-esteem issue comes into play.  I still have to fight with that little voice in my head that tries to tell me that quilting (or anything else I enjoy doing) is a waste of time.  So I think that’s why I put it last on my priority list.  And this is in spite of being married now to a wonderful man who thinks everything I do is amazing!  It’s hard to fight that little voice, but fight it I will, and I will win!

So will I continue with the article marketing?  I don’t know right now.  If I do, I will certainly cut back.  What I do know is that in 2010, I’m going to focus on my quilting, whether it brings in any income or not.

I’m very fortunate that I don’t have to worry about supporting myself at this point.  My husband is a disabled vet, and he gets disability from the VA, which is enough to pay the mortgage and cover all our bills.  My income is nice for extras, and I’ll continue to have  residual income from my articles each month, whether or not I ever write another one.

And of course the upside is, that I learned how to set up WordPress blogs, and I know all about webhosting and domains and SEO.  Maybe I’ll wind up with a side business setting up blogs for artists and craftspeople.  Lots of people use Blogspot because it’s free, but there are several reasons why this is not a good idea, the most important being that you don’t own your blog.   It belongs to Google, and Google can take it down any time they want.  But that’s a different subject, too!

Leni suggests setting goals for what you want to accomplish in the next year.  She also says to write them down!  So what’s my goal for 2010?  To spend at least an hour a day working on something I want to do.  Not to sell anything, not to make a masterpiece, not to do anything in particular.  Just to set an hour aside for myself every day.  Think I can do it?  I’m sure going to try!