Strip quilt made in quilt-as-you-go style

Here are the quilt pictures I promised yesterday. The first picture is the front of the quilt-as-you-go strip quilt I finished on Saturday. It came out pretty well, I think. It seemed like it took forever to make it though. I think I’ll save the quilt-as-you-go technique to join wider and longer strips together, instead of to join individual blocks.

Back of strip quilt

The back does look cute, though.  It could almost stand alone on its own as a quilt.  So this probably makes this quilt reversible, which is a handy thing for a baby quilt. This one will be donated to the local women’s shelter.

Diagonal strip quilt

The next quilt is a long over-due picture of the diagonal strip quilt I made for the ALS Hopes and Dreams Challenge. I really like the back of it. I saw some quilts for sale online that remind me of this quilt backing design.  They were going for an amazing price.  Maybe I should be focusing on quilt backing designs instead! 

Back of diagonal strip quilt

Now that this quilt is finally washed and dried, I’ll be packing it up tomorrow with my other two ALS quilts, and getting them mailed off.  About time, huh?

I finally got my two AAQI Priority Challenge Quilts in the mail today.  Now I can think about doing some more.

It got above freezing today, but it was still pretty cold outside.  My poor little hands got cold taking pictures of my quilts.  Just think, someday the snow will melt, and I won’t have to wear snowshoes for my quilt photography!

Spent most of the day sewing today.  I finished the long strips for my next quilt.  Tomorrow I’ll join them with sashing.  This time I’m going to dispense with binding by sewing the top, batting, and backing together as a sandwich.  Then I’ll turn it right side out, sew the opening closed, and machine quilt it after it’s turned.  I’ve done this in the past, and it works well.  Don’t know why I didn’t remember it til now.

So if all goes well, I may finish up another baby quilt for the women’s shelter tomorrow.

By the way, my city of Marquette, MI, WON the 2010 Dozen Distinctive Destination Contest!  This is really great news, and everyone here is pretty jazzed up about it.  Hopefully it will mean an increase in tourism for the area in the coming year.  There’s always something going on around here, even in the middle of winter!

Me in front of the ice castle in Eagle River, WI.

OK, which of these three things doesn’t belong? If you said outhouse races, you’re right!

How does any of this fit together? Read on to find out. This post is mostly non-quilting, so fair warning.

We now have a 24-foot boat sitting in our driveway. Cool, huh? Andrew has been diligently searching for a boat online, and he found one in St. Germain, WI, which is about three hours from here. Considering that he was looking at boats in downstate Michigan, Ohio, New York, and other far-flung locations, I was relieved that the trip to pick it up would be comparatively short.

We went to get the boat on Thursday. Of course, it took all day to drive down there and come back. But it was a pretty drive, one that we’ve made before on the way to Minneapolis.

On the way home, we stopped at Eagle River, WI, for some dinner.  While driving through town looking for a place to eat, we noticed what appeared to be an ice castle!  Of course, we had to check it out.  It’s not every day that you see something like this.

It was late in the afternoon, so the sun was at the perfect angle to light up the ice castle and make it glow.  It was COLD, but we had to walk all around it and take lots of pictures.

We rested up Friday in preparation for…

The first corporate sponsor! Here's Charmin's entry.

…the Trenary (MI) Outhouse Classic on Saturday.  Trenary is a little town of about 400 people about 30 miles south of Marquette.  To raise money for the town, they have outhouse races the last Saturday in February.  Believe it or not, people come from all over to see the outhouse races.  We saw license plates from Nebraska, Illinois, Pennsylvania, and North Carolina, as well as from Michigan.

Of course, the biggest news was that Charmin sponsored an outhouse in the race.  A major corporate sponsor, for the first time!

The other big news is that the outhouse races are now international, as well, with two racers from Japan who participated.

It was cold and windy, but the crowd was well-supplied with beer, along with hot coffee and hot chocolate.  Potty humor abounded, and poor taste was the order of the day.  A good time was had by all!

Have I actually managed to do any sewing lately?  Surprisingly enough, the answer is yes.  I finished  the quilt-as-you-go baby quilt yesterday, and today I started a new strip quilt.  So far I have two strips done, one that’s 9″ x 45″, and one that’s 5″ x 45″.  I’m going to make the strips different width, and then join them with sashing to finish up with a baby quilt about 36 inches wide. Quilt pictures will follow, hopefully tomorrow!

In the meantime, here’s a video from yesterday’s outhouse races.

This is totally non-quilt related, but since the UP 200 Dog Sled Race is the biggest thing around here this weekend, I thought I’d let you see a little bit of what’s going on.

This race is 241 miles long, from Marquette to Grand Marais and back again.  The mushers leave on Friday night, and return to Marquette on Sunday morning.

Me in the background, with the dog sled mascot in front

Andrew took this shot this morning.  It was really pleasant out today, warm and sunny.  Last year was COLD and windy, with blowing snow, so this was a definite improvement!

Here’s a picture of the winner, Ryan Anderson, from Ray, MN.   This is the seventh time he’s run this race.  He came in second last year, and third the year before that.

Ryan Anderson, winner of the 2010 UP 200 Dog Sled Race

The first thing he did when he crossed the finish line was to pet every one of his dogs.  He certainly couldn’t have done it without them!

Ryan Anderson, winner of the UP 200, petting all his sled dogs after their 241-mile trip

We pretty much made a day of it, eating lunch at L’Attitude downtown, and then going down to the Welcome Center south of town to watch some more teams come in.

The video at the bottom is from You Tube.  It shows the second place winner, and has some shots of some of the dogs.  You’d think they’d be big huskies, but, surprisingly, they’re pretty small and skinny.  Hard to believe that these dogs just ran 241 miles.  They look as if they’re still raring to go!

All in all, this was a fun way to spend a pleasant winter’s day.  Tomorrow, I hope to get some fabric dyed and do some sewing!

Oh yeah, Marquette is leading the pack in the Dozen Distinctive Destinations voting!  Be sure to vote for Marquette, early and often! 

Cat House Block!

Just visited Bumble Bean’s blog.  She has the cutest house block someone sent her with a sock monkey peeking out the window.  I love it!

Of course, not to be outdone, here’s my Cat House block.  It really is square.  I can’t seem to take a picture straight on for some reason.

There’s a story behind this.  Years ago when I lived in KY, I worked at the animal shelter, and also at the vet’s office.  Because I couldn’t resist a kitty in need, I wound up with seven cats!  The vet I worked for said I had the best little cat house in west KY.  So here’s to my kitty friends from many years ago!

The next two pictures are of my newest AAQI quilt!  Actually, I finished this one the day before yesterday.  This started out as a free piecing experiment.  I just sat down and started playing with scraps, sewing and cutting, and re-sewing.

AAQI Priority Quilt

Back of AAQI Priority Quilt

The finished quilt measures 9″ by 10.5″, and it’s machine quilted.

When I uploaded the pictures, it occurred to me that I need to come up with a name for it!  Any suggestions?

The Heartstrings Quilt Project is a group that makes and donates string quilts to local charitable organizations.  I joined because I’m definitely into string quilts right now!  For my first  Heartstrings project, I decided to try a quilt-as-you-go crib quilt to donate to the local women’s shelter.

First six quilt-as-you-go blocks

Ten-inch blocks seemed a little big for a crib quilt, so mine are seven inches instead.  I’ll need 30 blocks, which will hopefully result in a quilt that will be 35″ by 42″.

I thought it would be a total pain to cut out batting and backing squares, but it didn’t take very long to cut them out at all.

Here are the six blocks I finished this afternoon.  It’s pretty easy to sew the strips down to the batting and backing.  The blocks came out really well, and knowing that they’re already quilted is a nice plus.

Of course, they still have to be joined together, but that process doesn’t look too difficult.

Probably won’t get any sewing done tomorrow.  We need to go to the VA in Iron Mountain again, for a dental appointment, so that pretty much takes up the day.  Then in the evening, we’ll be going to see the start of the UP 200 Sled Dog Race.  Hey, we’ve gotta take advantage of all that snow!

What my backyard looks like. Only there's more snow now! And the sun is definitely NOT out today.

Well, we didn’t have much snow for a while, but it looks like the Upper Peninsula is going to live up to it’s wintry reputation this week.  It’s been snowing since Sunday.  I went out and cleared the driveway yesterday, but it’s pretty much filled back in already.  Plus the city plow left a BIG pile at the end of the drive.  Oh well.  Nobody here has to go anywhere today, which is probably a good thing.

Poor Andrew had oral surgery yesterday.  He wasn’t a very happy camper last night, but he’s feeling somewhat better today.  Having had oral surgery myself some years back,  I’d rather shovel the driveway with a teaspoon than to go through that!  But at least it’s over now, and he can focus on recovering.  I’m taking good care of him, and feeding him lots of soft food.

Enough with the non-quilting stuff.  Finally finished the diagonal strip quilt yesterday.  All I had to do was to bind it, but one corner just wouldn’t cooperate, so it took a bit longer than I thought it would.  But the quilt and I finally came to an agreement, and it’s now sporting a cheerful yellow binding.  A picture will follow after it’s washed.  Then I WILL mail those three quilts off to the ALS Quilt Challenge this week!

Today I want to make another block for the BASICS Home Gather that V is doing right now.  Plus I started a small free-pieced quilt the other day.  Just sat down and playing around with sewing scraps and strips together.  I want to finish that today, and get it quilted and add it to the pile for the AAQI.  Once I get three done, I’ll register them and send them off.

Plus I’m thinking about my next donation quilt.  I’ve joined the Heartstrings Yahoo Group, which is a group that makes string quilts to donate.  You can send them completed blocks, tops, quilts, or fabric, or you can make quilts and donate them locally.  I’m going to take the second route, since I obviously have a problem with mailing things off.  (Actually it’s hard to get to the post office.  Parking is impossible.  It’s easier to walk than to drive, but it’s too cold to walk down there right now, especially with a large box.)

My plans include making crib and child-sized quilts for the local women’s center, and maybe some 60″ by 80″ quilts for the Salvation Army, too.  So I’m thinking about doing the 20″ wide strips mentioned in Mile-A-Minute-Quilts by Sharon Hultgren.  Or I may just do individual strip blocks and quilt-as-you-go.

Why you don't go out on the breakwater during a storm...

This is a picture from last fall.  There’s a sign warning people to stay off the breakwater during storms because people have been swept away in the past.  Andrew was standing right at the beginning of it, but I was so nervous about him being there that he didn’t stay there very long, thank goodness.

Enough of this.  I’m off to sew!

Strip quilt ready for quilting!

Here’s the stashbusting strip quilt I’ve been working on this week. I meant it to be a crib-sized quilt, but it came out about 46″ by 48″, so I think I’ll donate it to the Hopes and Dreams Quilt Challenge for ALS.  I STILL haven’t mailed off the two quilts I’ve completed, so I guess I may as well wait another day or two to finish this one before I mail them all off.

I meant to practice quilt-as-you-go with this quilt, but it didn’t happen, mostly because of the bias edges on the outside of the quilt.  I was afraid they would stretch, and they did.  I hurried up and sewed borders on to contain the ever-growing edges, and they seem to have done the trick.

Tomorrow I’ll get the backing done, and get it basted.  If I’m feeling really ambitious, I may even start quilting it.  It should go pretty fast, as I’m not going to mess around and do anything fancy.  Straight-line quilting is the only way to go!

House block with kitty

V over at Bumble Beans is collecting house blocks to make quilts for BASICS, a group that helps homeless people in NYC.  She’s asking for 10.5″ house blocks; click on the link for the pattern and directions if you’re interested in making a block or two for her!

I decided to take a break from the string quilt and make a house block this morning.  V said you could applique a heart on the house, but what’s a home without a cat?

I cut the kitty out of some fabric I had on hand, and fused it down.  Then I went around it with an outline stitch just to be sure he doesn’t go anywhere!  I love that grin.  Wonder what he’s thinking about getting into?

This block really is square.  My photography skills aren’t the greatest, I’m afraid!

Ice mountains along the Lake Superior shore

Went for a walk yesterday.  It was COLD out there!  The north wind definitely had teeth in it.

The constant wind has been blowing the ice up against the shoreline.  This area is usually open water, but you can see how the ice has built up.  The waves are breaking against the ice, which is way out from shore.

Snow drifts across the bike path

I couldn’t resist taking a picture of the snowdrifts on the bike path!  The wind comes in off the lake and dumps the snow right on the pathway.  There’s always an adventure around here.

Don’t forget to vote for Marquette in the Dozen Distinctive Destinations at the National Trust for Historic Preservation!  Right now Marquette is in first place!  Woo hoo!  But that could change, so we need to keep voting.

This has been an insanely busy week.  I don’t really like it when I don’t get to sew for two days running!

On Tuesday, Andrew had two appointments at the VA in Iron Mountain, which is 80 miles from here.  A long trip in the snow, and we had to be there at 7 AM!  The only upside is that they’re on central time, and we’re on eastern, so at least we didn’t have to leave until 6 AM.

We didn’t get back home til about 3:30 in the afternoon, which makes for a long day.

Our camper. We sure did have a lot of fun traveling around with it. But once we moved to Marquette, our traveling days were over!

Yesterday we hauled our camper down to Escanaba to the RV dealer, who was going to buy it.  We had a 30-foot long fifth wheel that had been sitting in our driveway for over a year.  We’d been trying to sell it all of last year, but with the economy so bad, there were no takers.

Of course, the camper was snowed in.  I mean SNOWED IN.  Andrew had backed it in from the street when we moved into this house back in October of 2008.  But there was no getting it out the way it came in, until spring!

Since waiting wasn’t an option, we wondered if we could get it out the driveway.  We hired the merry crew of snow shovelers who happened to show up on Monday to clear a path for Andrew to back the truck up to the camper.

Bright and early yesterday morning, we were out there, making our preparations.  I had to move a little more snow, but Andrew got the truck backed up, and we managed to get hitched up.  He was at a pretty sharp angle to the camper, so we weren’t sure this was going to work.

But it did!  We had to trim a few low-hanging branches off the big oak tree at the end of the driveway, and Andrew had to drive through a rather large snowbank, but he got the camper out of the driveway.  Somebody came walking down the street just in time to make sure the camper would fit under the overhead electrical wire that goes to the house, while I watched the back end, to make sure we wouldn’t hit anything with it.

Of course, that was only half the battle.  We still had to drive the thing 60 miles down to Escanaba.  The roads were snow-covered and slick, and poor Andrew was pretty stressed.  We found out later that two vehicles had slid off the road earlier in the morning.  One had flipped over, and the other went over a steep embankment, rolling at least once on the way down.  I’m glad we didn’t know that at the time!

We left just before 11AM and got to Escanaba around 12:30.  We left the camper at the RV place for them to inspect it, and went to have lunch.  After lunch, we picked up our check and headed home.  Of course, it was pushing 4 before we made it back home.  And we were both wiped out!

My intrepid fisherman and his little red boat

We didn’t get as much for the camper as we had hoped to, but at least it’s sold, and now Andrew can recycle that money into a bigger boat. He’s been going out fishing on Lake Superior in his little 12-foot boat for months. Now he can get a 20- or 22-footer, which will make me feel a little better about him being out there!

Today Andrew had another doctor’s appointment, but at least it was here in town.  I even managed to get some sewing in this morning!  I’ll get some quilt pix up tomorrow.

Barn Dance, finished!

Finally got around to taking some pictures yesterday.  Here’s my “Barn Dance” quilt hanging on the clothesline.  It was a bear to quilt, but it’s finished!  I have to say that I’m quite pleased with how it came out.

The next picture is of my “Rail Fence” quilt.  I like how the lights and darks zig across the surface.  It’s quite a lively quilt, with a lot of movement.  Not bad for just sitting down and sewing a pile of strips together!

I’ll get them packed up this weekend, and in the mail to the Hopes and Dreams Quilt Challenge for ALS on Monday.

Rail Fence Scrap Quilt

I went up to Alley Kat’s Quilt Shop yesterday.  All the fabrics were 30% off, including white PFD (prepared for dyeing) mercerized cotton.  Such a deal!  I got five yards for less than $18, including sales tax.   Ben Franklin is having a sale this weekend, too.  I have a 40% off coupon, so I think I’ll run over there this morning, and get another quilt batting.  With all the quilting I’m doing right now, it’s nice to be able to save a few bucks on batting.

Now that I have some white fabric to play with, I may do some dyeing today.  Fabric Dyeing 101 has lots of great tips for dyeing fabric.  I especially like her directions for making batik-like fabrics with gel glue.  I’ve dyed a lot of yarn, and even tried my hand at some socks last fall, but haven’t done any fabric yet.  Since I already have the pro mx dyes, soda ash, and everything else I need, I’m ready to go!

I also took a look at Fusing Fun!  Fast Fearless Art Quilts by Laura Wasilowski yesterday afternoon.  I am hooked!  What a fun book.  I even have an idea for my first fused quilt, once I get a few fabrics dyed.  I need to pick up some fusible web while I’m out today, too.  I have some Wonder Under around here someplace, but since I don’t want to tear into my closet, I’ll just buy some more and wait for it to surface, which it will, eventually.

Haven’t done any sewing the past couple of days, and don’t know if I’ll get any done today, but hopefully I’ll get back to it tomorrow for a bit.  Right now my brain is so full of stuff that I feel like I may explode.

Thill's Fish House, at the Lower Harbor in Marquette, MI

One last thing:  Marquette, MI,  my hometown, is one of the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s Dozen Distinctive Destinations for 2010.  Here’s what it’s all about:  “Since 2000, the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s Dozen Distinctive Destination program has recognized cities and towns that offer an authentic visitor experience by combining dynamic downtowns, cultural diversity, attractive architecture, cultural landscapes and a strong commitment to historic preservation, sustainability and revitalization. In each community, residents have joined together and taken action to protect their town’s character.”

Between now and February 28,  anyone over 18 can vote for their favorite, as often as they want.  Marquette is trailing behind Rockland, Maine, and we can’t let that happen!  So please click the link, register (they just want your name and email) and vote for Marquette, MI!  Vote early and vote often!

Yay, Andrew made it home safely last night, around 12:30.  He was tired, but wound up, so it took a little while for both of us to calm down enough to go to sleep!

So of course nobody was up early this morning.  I slept til eight, which is late for me.  I let Andrew sleep til 9:30 before I woke him up.  I hated to do it, but I know he would have trouble sleeping tonight if I let him go too much longer.

I did manage to get some laundry done, but other than that, the day was a wash.  And there’s nothing wrong with that, either.  It was nice to sit on the couch with my honey and look at the pictures he took in TN and just talk.

Mary from Making Scrap Quilts From Stash was nice enough to send me a link for Mile-A-Minute Quilts.  This sounds exactly like what I’m looking for.  The idea is that you piece a long strip about 20″ wide, and then machine quilt the strip.  Then you join the strips. The strips are much smaller and easier to handle than a full-size quilt.  Love it!

I was tempted to order it, since I can get it for less than $5, but shipping always adds up.  So I ordered it inter-library loan!

Speaking of which, the first three books I ordered last week came in yesterday.  Of course, I had to walk right down to the library to pick them up.  Liberated Quiltmaking, Liberated String Quilts, and Fusing Fun! Fast Fearless Art Quilts are MINE for the next three weeks!  And I also have Thinking Outside The Block by Sandi Cummings and Karen Flamme on order, along with Mile-A-Minute Quilts.

Liberated String Quilts is great!  I’ve already gleaned lots of ideas from this book.  I need to make a few notes so I can remember them later on. I can’t wait to get started on my next project now!

Just started looking at Liberated Quiltmaking this afternoon, but didn’t get too far before I  nodded off.  I’ll look at it some more tomorrow, but it looks it’s full of great ideas, too.

I was going to take some quilt pictures today, but just didn’t do it.  Oh well, tomorrow is another day, as Scarlett O’Hara says.  I need to walk up to the little quilt store in the Village tomorrow since they’re having a sale, so while I’m outside, I’ll pin the quilts to the line and snap away. I know, going into a fabric store when they’re having a sale is dangerous, but I’ve already decided the only thing I will buy is some Wonder Under and maybe a couple of yards of white material to dye.

Molly perched on the arm of the couch

I’ll close with this picture of Molly.  She was so funny last night.  While Andrew was gone,  I usually went to bed around 11:20, after watching the local news and weather.  Last night, of course, I was going to wait up for Andrew, so I didn’t go to bed like I usually do.  Poor Molly was just having a fit!  She started jumping up on the back of my recliner around 11:25 pm, and was obviously agitated over something.

I got up to see what her problem was, and she led me straight to the bedroom!  I told her we were going to stay up and wait for Daddy, but she wasn’t convinced.  She finally did settle into my lap for a bit before Andrew got home.  Poor kitty.

Looks like our January thaw might be over for a bit.  But I sure enjoyed it  while it lasted!  Here are a few pictures from my walks along the Lake Superior beach last weekend.

Woo hoo, look at our thermometer! Been a while since it's been this warm!

Ice balls along the beach on Saturday. They were nearly melted the next day, so I'm glad I got this shot! They look like something from outer space, don't they?

Look at the neat designs in this chunk of ice. Be sure to click on it to enlarge it. This could be a quilting design!

Somebody built snowmen in these planters in Mattson Park at the Lower Harbor. They have petunias in them in the summer. Sitting on those benches right now would be a challenge, wouldn't it?

It was cloudy and overcast today, so I stayed in and sewed all day!

The big news is that I finished “Winter Journey,” my first Liberated Challenge Quilt!  By the time I finished the binding this afternoon, I didn’t feel like messing around with the camera.  Besides, I want to get out my light box and get some good photos, so I’ll do that in the morning.  I will tell you it came out really cool.  There will be pix tomorrow!

Strings! These are an inch and a half wide. Guess what I was doing today?

Leaders and enders. I wound up with over 100 little four-patches from this pile! Almost enough for another quilt top already. You can see that I'm getting liberated and using up all my old thread, too! Who says you have to piece with white thread?

Besides sewing loads of four-patches, I also finished piecing the borders for my barn-raising quilt, which I’m going to call Barn Dance.  I’ll get the borders sewed on tomorrow, and then that top will be ready for quilting.  Pix will follow!

So you can see I’ve been a busy little girl!  I’ve been sewing my heart out, and having a blast!