The beach is always changing...Waves take the old pebbles away and wash new ones up all the time.

Woo hoo, a new month, full of possibilities!  What new ideas will wash ashore this month?

Wishing I had my camera right now.  I decided I didn’t feel like machine quilting yesterday, so I started another AAQI quilt.  This one will be called “Fragments,” for the fragments of memory that float to the surface of the mind.

The fabric I’m using is recycled  from an old Sacred Threads coat I had bought at Goodwill.  When I was pulling it apart, there was unfaded fabric in the seam allowances.  So I’m trying to use the frayed edges, and take advantage of the contrast between the faded and unfaded parts of the fabrics.

Most of the quilt is made up of a piece of loosely woven material.  I cut holes in it randomly, and used reverse applique to sew down some spots of material to peek through the holes, which are the memories.  I’m leaving the edges of the holes to fray out.

I started quilting it last night.  But I’m not quite satisfied with it.  It needs a focal point of some kind.  Think I’ll pin it up to my foamboard today so I can look at it as I work today.  Wish I could put a picture up.  I was desperate enough to take a picture with a cell phone yesterday, but my TracPhone doesn’t have a camera on it!  Oh well, Andrew will be home in a few days, so I can show you then.

Water changes form, to ice, and back to water again in the spring. Recycling old clothes changes their form into something new.

Read a post the other day on recycling fabrics, and now I can’t find it!  It must have been a link from one of the blogs I check every day.  I’ve already been doing this for years, on and off.  My best find was an extra large ladies’ blouse for ten cents!  It was cotton (of course), fuschia with a black print, and there must have been two yards of fabric there.  Sweet!

I’ve cut up many men’s shirts, too, but unless it’s an extra large, it can be problematic because of the pockets on the front.  I suppose I could make a pocket quilt?  Hmm, have to think about that one.  Actually, the best garments to cut up are women’s jumpers and skirts, especially if you can get them on sale.  Goodwill is getting more expensive, which I don’t understand.  I mean, it’s used clothing, right?  There is a St. Vincent De Paul thrift store right up the street from me, and also a Salvation Army thrift store across town, and they’re more reasonably priced.

But right now I need to stay away from thrift stores and fabric stores.  Let’s see, in January I pieced four lap-sized quilts, and machine quilted a UFO, and three others.  Plus I made one AAQI quilt.  But I still haven’t made a noticeable dent in my stash!  There are lots of new beginnings just waiting here…

Found another quilt challenge.  This one is from Julie Bagamary, and it’s called More Blessed To Give.  She is challenging everyone to make one item a week to donate.  The best part about this one is that you don’t have to be a quilter.  No matter what you do, whether it’s knitting hats or crocheting blankets, or even making soap or jewelry, make one item a week to donate to a good cause.

Since I’ve been on a roll lately as far as stashbusting goes, I thought I would look for a local group here in the Upper Peninsula that might be able to use some quilts.  And I found the Marquette Women’s Center, a shelter for domestic violence victims.  I sent them an email this morning, and hope to hear back from them next week as to what size quilts would be best for them.  I have enough blocks on hand for probably two more lap or crib-sized quilts, so I can have a couple ready pretty quick.

I’ve  been working away on my Rail Fence quilt.  It may have looked easy, but I’ve had more trouble with this particular scrap quilt than I’ve had with any project in a long time.  Do you think I could keep my pattern straight?  Noooo-oooo.  I swear, I sewed things together backwards and upside-down, and I still think there’s a mistake in it someplace.

I pieced together a batting from leftover pieces that have been banging around in my closet forever.  That was a challenge, but I finally got it done.  Then when I started the machine quilting, I messed it up, and wound up having to pick out two LONG rows of stitches, diagonally across a 50″ by 60″ quilt!  Sigh.  At least they were long stitches.  I messed up on my second try, too, but this time I had enough sense to stop before I got too far.  More stitches to pick out.

The third time was the charm!  I think I may actually finish the quilting this morning, but I don’t want to be too sure of myself!  If I manage to finish it, then I’ll get a backing and batting together for my Barn Dance quilt, so I can get that one done as well.

Andrew is still in TN.  Now they’ve had an ice/snow storm down there.  Hope they still have power.  I haven’t heard from him since yesterday, so if he doesn’t call me, I’ll give him a buzz later to see how things are going there.

It’s been COLD here, in the single digits during the days, below zero at night.  I think the temperature might have struggled up to 11 degrees yesterday.  Since I was out of milk, bread, and half-and-half (essential to life around here), I got brave and bundled up in my long underwear and down coat (a Goodwill purchase in MN) and walked up to the store.  I have to say that the right clothes do make a difference!  The only part of me that got cold was my nose, and I pulled my scarf up to protect my face.

Molly looking cute

Still no camera, so I’ll close with this picture of Molly.  She loves to sit on the table and watch birds and squirrels out the back window.  She’s been a lot of company for me this week, although she thinks I should spend more time playing with her, and less time quilting!

Nora's Big Girl Quilt

While the Liberated Quilters have been having their virtual quilting  retreat yesterday and today, my own private retreat took  place over the weekend.  And it will continue this week, since my husband is headed for TN today.

I spent Saturday and Sunday basting and quilting and binding, and I have TWO quilts to show for it!  Here’s a picture of Nora’s big girl quilt.  I had to hang it sideways on the clothesline to keep it out of the snow.  (How many people do you know who wear snowshoes while taking pictures of their quilts?)  You can click on it for a close-up.

I wound up quilting it in a diagonal grid.  Since time was of the essence, I needed to something fast, and this worked out well.

Brody's quilt

Here’s the quilt for Andrew’s new grandson, whose name will be Brody.  I quilted it in a diagonal grid, too.  Not real original, but it looks good, and it’s finished!  This UFO had been banging around in my closet for a couple of years now, so I’m happy to have it done and on its way to its new home!

Andrew will be heading out shortly.  We’ve were concerned about the big snowstorm, but we think we have a route planned that misses most of it.  At least we put new tires on the truck last week, so that should help him if he does hit a lot of snow someplace.

Brody will hopefully be born tomorrow.  They’re inducing Jenny in the morning.  She wanted them to wait until Andrew was there, so that’s why he’s leaving today, even though the weather isn’t the best, instead of waiting til tomorrow.  So be sending good thoughts and wishes Jenny’s way!  And also for Andrew to have a safe trip.  (He has ankylosing spondylitis, and is a chronic pain patient, so these long trips are hard on him.)

My hubby will be gone for a week, so I intend to quilt my brains out!  The weather has turned off COLD, so I probably won’t be taking any real long hikes this week, unless I’m feeling especially brave.  The extent of my travels will probably be to walk up to the neighborhood grocery store for milk.  I stocked up on cat food and frozen dinners yesterday, so Molly and I are ready for our girls’ week together.

I want to quilt my Barn Dancing quilt, and get going on some more stashbusting quilts.  You’ll be happy to know that I actually went into a fabric store yesterday and didn’t buy anything but a quilt batting and a needle threader!  I practically had to cover my eyes and not look at anything in the store while I made a beeline to the batting area.  But I did it!  And I had a 30% off coupon, which made it even better!

Molly the watchcat

Molly was watching me out the window yesterday as I was taking pictures of the quilts.  She looked so cute that I couldn’t resist taking this picture!  Kinda makes up for when she gets up on the table and knocks everything in the floor!

Girly-girl quilt for Nora

Like most quilters, I have an amazing stash.  I’ve taken a vow not to buy any more material until I can make an appreciable dent in what I already have.  This was put to the test with a quilt I’m making for my step-granddaughter, Nora.

I never got around to making a baby quilt for Nora when she was born a year ago.  Since she’s 13 months old already, Granny decided to make her a  big-girl quilt instead.

I already had a bunch of four-patch units I’d made up using the leaders and enders technique from Quiltville.  I went through my stash of pinks (which wasn’t huge to start with; I’m not a pink person!), and cut them up into 4-1/2 inch squares.  I had to piece some of them!

And here’s the result!  It came out really cute.  I made it bigger, about 51″ by 60″ so Nora will be able to use it for quite a while before outgrowing it.  All the pinks really work well together with the scrappy four-patches.  It’s a really girly-girl quilt!

I cut extra pink squares because I had planned to sew them together for the backing, but I’ve changed my mind on this.  I’m racing the stork to finish this quilt, along with another one, so that Andrew can take them with him when he goes to TN to see his new grandson (when he’s born).  So I think I’ll find a bigger piece of material in my stash to use as a backing instead to save time.

The leftover pink squares will find a home in another quilt, probably a baby quilt to donate.  And I’ve still got plenty of the four-patch units left for another quilt, probably a second one for the Hopes and Dreams Quilt Challenge for ALS.

Little footprints in the snow

The weather has been quite pleasant lately, cold but sunny, so I’ve been getting out for walks in the afternoons.  When you sit in front of a sewing machine for hours, it’s good to get out for some exercise!

It was warm enough to walk along the beach yesterday, which is my favorite walk!

Here are some little animal tracks I found in the snow by the Coast Guard station.  I found the little hole where this critter lives,  and I followed his tracks as he meandered through the pine trees.  The little footprints cross here.  I think these were from a second critter, since they came from a different direction.  A friend or relative perhaps?  This made me think of a superhighway in the woods!

Well, I need to get busy.  I have to get a backing together, baste this quilt and a baby quilt, and get them machine quilted and bound.  So you know what I’ll be doing for the next couple of days!

"Winter Journey," my first AAQI Priority Quilt!

Here are the pictures I promised you yesterday of my first AAQI Priority Quilt for the Liberated Quilting Challenge.  I even got out my light box so I could take some nice photos for my records.

It took a while to finish, really a lot longer than it should have.  I was challenged by how to attach the wolf.  I wanted to fuse him down, but do you think I could find my Wonder Under?  I ended up using some very lightweight fusible interfacing on him so he wouldn’t fray.  I wanted the fraying on the background strips, but not on him.

I blanket stitched around the wolf , using dark gray embroidery floss, and then used light gray floss in an outline stitch to make him stand out from the background a little more.

I’m pretty happy with how it came out.  I really like the wolf image.  I think he’s going to show up again in some future quilts.

AAQI Priority Quilt back

I even pieced the back.  I need to register it, but I”m going to wait til I have a couple more done and register them all at once.  I already have an idea for the next one!

Barn Dance quilt top for the Hopes and Dreams Challenge for ALS. I used painter's tape to tape it to the wall for the photo. You can see it at the top! The quilt stayed up long enough for me to snap the picture before it fell off the wall.

And I finished the “Barn Dance” quilt top this morning!  Well, not quite.  I managed to sew the top border on upside down!  I’ll have to pull it off and sew it down again in the morning.  Meant to do it this afternoon, but I forgot about it til I saw the picture!

“Barn Dance” will be donated to the Hopes and Dreams Challenge for ALS when I get it quilted.

Baby quilt ready to quilt

This baby quilt has been banging around in my closet for a couple of years now.  I made it from directions in a nine-patch book by Blanche Young.  I don’t have the book anymore, and I can’t remember which book it was either!  It has a backing and batting.  All it needs is quilting, which I never did, for some reason.  So it’s in the line-up now.  My step-daughter and her hubby are going to have a baby boy soon, so it will go to her when it’s done.

I never did make a baby quilt for my step-son and his wife when their daughter was born a year ago.  So I’m going to use the little four-patches I made yesterday to make a big-girl quilt for Nora, since she’s already going on 13 months!  I spent this afternoon cutting out pink squares to go with them.  I’ll put the four-patches on point, and alternate them with the pink squares.

When I get Nora’s quilt top done, I’ll have three tops to machine quilt.  I’ll just line them up assembly line fashion, and straight line quilt them, using the tutorial provided by Jacquie at Tallgrass Prairie Studio.

Once again, I spent the day working on quilts, sewing in the morning, and getting my next project organized and set up.  It was overcast and cold with snow on and off all day, so it was a great day for quilting!

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!

Is there such a thing as the perfect quilt?  Do you drive yourself nuts trying to make sure all your seams match?  Do you feel like the Quilt Police are looking disapprovingly over your shoulder as you work?  If so, you should read  “Perfection” from The House of Krom.

I have to say that the author hits the nail on the head.  I’ve spent so much time obsessing over trying to make all my quilts perfect.  But the truth is, that no matter how carefully I cut and sew and press, I STILL can’t get all my seams to match!  I actually stopped quilting for a while, out of frustration.  The joy was gone.

Now I’m approaching my quilting differently.  I want to enjoy the process, not drive myself crazy.  I guess that’s what liberated quilting is all about!  It’s not just about the wonky stars and creative piecing, as fun as all that is.  It’s really a mindshift.

Look closely, and you'll see that the seams on the patchwork are offset by a quarter inch!

Take a good look at the picture on the right.  Click on it to make it bigger, and you’ll see that the seams on the patchwork are offset by at least a good quarter-inch.  I suspect this has something to do with the fact that I cut the patchwork squares in half, and then sewed them to the brown triangles.

No matter what I did, these seams were NEVER going to match!

A year ago, I would have given up in total dismay.  But now?  Well, if they don’t line up, they don’t line up.  And you know what?  From a distance, you can’t even tell.

The quilting police better not look too closely! Not all the seams in the border match.

You can see that not every seam in my border matches either!  And I didn’t spend a lot of time pinning the daylights out of it, trying to make those seams line up.  All I did was to press the seams going one way on one pieced strip, and going the opposite way on the other one.  I put my walking foot on, lined everything up as best I could, and had at it.  Some seams match, some don’t.  And guess what?  From a distance, you can’t tell!

Molly is excited about the Hopes and Dreams Quilt Challenge! She has carefully inspected this quilt, and says it meets with her approval!

And my quilt has found a home.  When it’s done, I’m going to donate it to the Hopes and Dreams Quilt Challenge for ALS.  This challenge is open to any quilter who wants to donate a quilt.  The quilt should be at least 35 by 44 inches, and bed-sized quilts are even better.  The quilts will be given to people with ALS, and some will be auctioned, raffled off, or displayed to raise money for ALS research.  The challenge is open until July 31, 2010.

Anyone who donate a quilt will be entered into a drawing to win prizes provided by a wide range of sponsors.

This sounds like a win-win situation to me!  You can donate as many quilts as you want.  I already have another one about halfway pieced using Bonnie Hunter’s leaders and enders technique.  I’ll donate that one, too.  I love to make quilts, but you can only use so many of them, so it’s nice to find another place that can use them.

And it’s even nicer to use up all that fabric that has been sitting around here for years!  As Clare at Dordogne Quilter says, “Finished is better than perfect!”  I love it!

PS:  Brenda at Scraps and Strings has directions for making utility quilts to donate to the Mennonite Central Committee.  It’s pretty warm in Haiti, but I would guess those folks will need blankets at night.

Woo hoo!  Got a new Knit Picks catalog in the mail yesterday.  I have a LIFETIME supply of yarn, especially sock yarn, but, oh, it’s so much fun to look!  And this is the perfect catalog for a gray and white winter season, just full of lively colors and patterns and gorgeous yarn…no, will NOT buy more yarn…

I sewed my barn-raising quilt together yesterday, too.  It’s about 37″ by 42″, which I think is a bit skimpy for a lap quilt, so I will be adding a border.  I want to use up the last four blocks in the corners, which means the borders will be about five inches wide.  That should make a nice size small quilt.

I’m considering how to do the borders.  I have LOTS of 1-1/2 inch strips, so I was going to seam a bunch together, and just do strips.  But now I’m wondering about doing it in little squares, to match the blocks.  I would use the Scrappy Trips Around The World directions from Bonnie Hunter’s Quiltville.  This is how I made the blocks to start with, but my scrap quilt sure didn’t look as good as the ones on her site!

It would take longer to do that, but the idea of slow cloth is calling me.  Why am I always in such a rush to finish stuff?  I’m learning to slow down and let the quilt lead me where it wants to go, instead of trying to force it to conform to an idea in my head.

I stopped quilting for a long time because it was such a struggle.  I couldn’t get my seams to line up nicely, projects came out awful, sewing just wasn’t fun any more.  I realize now it’s because I was trying to control the process too much.  I had the idea that the more I controlled things, the better my quilts would be.  But the paradox is that the more I let go, the more I find enjoyment in the process, and the better my work is.

On a different topic, we’re in the midst of the fabled January thaw.  It was actually above freezing yesterday, and the sun was out.  In the afternoon, I finished scooping mushy snow out of the end of the driveway and took off for a walk!  I love to walk, and I walk up the beach near my house nearly every day when the weather is nice.  It’s hard to motivate myself when an arctic gale is blowing, though, so my walking tapers off during the winter months.  It’s nice to get out when the opportunity presents itself!

Here are a few pictures from my walk.  Click on the image to make it bigger, and click on the magnifying glass icon when it appears to make it bigger yet!  Enjoy!

Ice build-up on rocks by Picnic Rocks. You can see the ore dock at the Upper Harbor in the background.

Icy build-up on tree at Picnic Rocks. You can see the Presque Isle lighthouse and the Upper Harbor breakwater in the background, along with the ore dock.

The beach I love to walk on when it's warmer. Too cold today, with an icy wind coming off Lake Superior!

I snapped this picture while walking along the bike path. The white birch against the blue sky and blue water caught my eye, but the giant multi-trunked tree is really the star here.

I love how the bike path meanders through the trees here...just inviting you to go further and see what's around the corner!

Snow bridge at McCarthy Cove. This is open water in the summer. It's shallow enough to wade out to the rocks, but because of the ever-present strong cross-currents, most people don't venture out there.

You may remember my post about my quilting disaster.  Well, the Quilt From Hell is no longer from hell!  In fact, now I love it!

Yesterday I squared up my blocks and trimmed them so that they’re the same size.  They finished at five-and-three-quarters inches, so will sew up to five-and-a-quarter.  It will finish up as a lap quilt, and I’ll have four blocks left over.  Who knows what they’ll end up in?

In the afternoon, I laid them out in the floor, and tried some different configurations.

Zigzags was my first try. It was OK, but I didn't really care for it.

I liked the diagonal set a little better...

And the winner is...an off-center barn raising set!

The barn-raising set was the one that I liked the best.  The quilt is eight blocks tall, by seven blocks wide, so there’s no way to really center it, which I didn’t want to do anyway.  I like the off-center look.  It has a lot more visual interest.

So today I hope to get it sewed together.  I was raring to go yesterday, but my driveway desperately needed to be shoveled!  Real life always calls, doesn’t it?  But there may be a break in the snow for a few days, as the forecast is calling for highs in the 30′s through the weekend, with maybe even some sun peeking out.  Warm enough to enjoy a few walks, too!  I feel like I’ve been cooped up in the house forever!

On the baby quilt front:  I mailed Sarah’s quilt out last Friday.  I called and let her know it was on the way, and extracted a promise that she would call me before she opened it so I could hear her reaction.  The Post Office came through, and the quilt arrived safely yesterday.  She had just gotten back from shopping, and had to put away the cold stuff before she could call me!  I praised her for her self-restraint.

She loved it!  Of course I knew she would, but it’s always great to hear it.  The older boys were at school, but Kieran, who is two, loved it, too.  He saw it, and said, “ooooh, kitties!”  Sarah’s telling him that it’s for the new baby, so hopefully he won’t glom onto it!  He has his own kitty “kilt” from Granny that I made for him when he was born.  Sarah’s probably going to hang this one on the wall above the changing table so they can enjoy it until the new baby comes.

In spite of the snow shoveling, I managed to do some more handquilting on my AAQI Challenge Quilt, too.  I was afraid my hands would be too tired, but such was not the case.  I made myself quit after an hour or so, which was hard.  But the quilting is nearly done now, and I should finish it tonight.  Then I just need to do the wolf applique, and bind it, along with the hanging corners.  Can’t wait to finish it so I can get started on the next one!  I have ideas for a couple more.

Molly, Quilting Supervisor-In-Chief

I’ll finish up today with a picture of Molly.  She was watching me lay my quilt blocks out in the floor yesterday afternoon, and looked so cute sitting on her stool that I couldn’t resist snapping her picture.  She sat next to me on that stool while I was sitting at the ironing board trimming quilt blocks yesterday morning.

How sweet, you say?  Don’t be fooled.  She wanted me to feed her, and was trying to get me to give in and do it by patting me on the arm with her paw.  When that didn’t work, she resorted to knocking things in the floor.  But I held firm, and made her wait til I was done.  Life is so hard for a cat!

Hope everyone enjoyed their New Year celebration.  Here in Marquette, they have a lighted ball drop downtown at midnight to celebrate the New Year.  Andrew and me were going to go, but us old farts fell asleep in our chairs in front of the TV instead!  Oh well.

Driveway before I shoveled it out. It wasn't as bad as it could have been!

Our snow storm is still going on, with the snow coming and going in waves.  I finally went out this morning to clear the driveway.  Andrew tried to tell me not to bother, as he can drive out easily with the truck.  But the snow will only get deeper, so I decided to get out there and take care of it.  You can see there was a pretty good pile at the end where the city plow always leaves snow.

But it didn’t take very long to get it cleared out.  I shoveled out the end of the driveway and then used the snow blower on the rest of it.  It always amazes me how there isn’t even a slight breeze til I get out the snow blower.  Then a gale always comes up to blow all that snow back in my face!  I look like the abominable snow woman when I’m finished.

When I went inside, I managed to dump a load of snow from my hat right down my back!  ACK!  It (of course) went right down the back of my shirt and down into my long underwear.  Who needs a brother to dump snow down your back when you can do it yourself?

The result, 75 fun-filled minutes later...

These photos were  taken around 10 and 11 AM.  Looks like twilight, doesn’t it?  Actually, it was snowing pretty hard when I took the second one, which is maybe why it looks so blue.

I joined the Liberated Quilters Group at Yahoo last night.  I was interested in participating in the Liberated Challenge for the Alzheimer’s Art Quilt Initiative.  What you do is to make a little quilt that will fit into one of those Priority Mailing envelopes from the Post Office.  It has to fit without folding or scrunching it up, so that means small, about eight by ten inches.  You can see all the rules at the AAQI website.  They auction the donated quilts off to raise money for Alzheimer’s research.  A very worthy cause!

I’m looking forward to trying my hand at the Liberated Challenge.  I’ve never done anything like this before, so it should be fun.  There was a picture of a seagull-type bird in the paper today.  I cut it out to use as inspiration.  Since I live so close to the beach, there are always seagulls around here.

I’m also excited to connect with other liberated quilters out there.  It looks like a great group of people.  I’d encourage you to join, too, and take part in the challenge!

I’ve found a couple of really cool blogs to tell you about too, but this post is long enough.  So I’ll share those with you tomorrow!

Baby quilt update:  I should be finishing the baby quilt today!  I started sewing the binding on yesterday.  I should finish it this afternoon.  Then I’ll run it through the washer and dryer, sign and date it, and take some pictures to share tomorrow!