Snow In Georgia

The future lies before you, like paths of pure white snow. Be careful how you tread it,  for every step will show. 

Unknown

We got a little snow this week.  The weather reports were for it to not be bad in Atlanta.  If you have watched the news you know that the roads turned into parking lot and thousands of cars were abandoned on the interstates and surfaced roads.  Today it will finally get above freezing and things will move back to normal.  Our area didn't have bad roads and they dried out completely yesterday.  

We didn't even get 2 inches.  It is always pretty.  I enjoy looking at it but I think it looks even more beautiful when it is a little deeper.  Winter isn't over yet so it may still happen.  The deepest snow I've ever seen here in Georgia was in March - 10 inches.

We didn't get much sunshine yesterday.  The cloud cover was too thick.  It made for a pretty picture though.

I have been trying to get something done for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge.  I have wanted to make several quilts that have lots of color.  I keep notebooks full of designs that I have ripped from magazines.  I finally got a chance to look through them and pull the designs I want to work on.  That's as far as I got so far other than looking for some of the background fabric I can use.  

This is a nice Storm at Sea Variation.  I have the Marti Michell templates for it too.  I'm not sure I will do the Monkey Wrench border. 

I've always loved quilts with black backgrounds.  This one looks like a good one to make a few blocks at a time.  I have plenty of black for the background.  I will enjoy using some of the batiks I have been hoarding. My only problem making this on will be that it is so much harder to see to sew on black than it used to be.  Isn't growing older grand!

I have a small collection of 30's prints that I want to use.  I'm trying to decide whether or not to make this background scrappy white on whites.  I have a variety of pieces that I could do this with and this would be a good project to use them in.  I also have plenty of yardage that I could use to make the background all the same.

I hope to finish pulling the fabrics for these quilts soon and get them underway.

Then on a couple of blogs I saw a block that intrigued me.  It is very simple but large.  I had been wanting to start using the Accuquilt Studio cutter that I got for my birthday and this looked like the perfect way to use it!  With just a few passes through the cutter I had way more strips than I needed for the project's first block and background for the whole quilt or more.  These two stacks are my leftovers.  Maybe I should make more than one.

This is my first block.  I don't know the book or the name of the block.  It was one I could grid out from a picture.  If you know the title please let me know.  This is my NewFO for the month.  
** edit - Thanks to Teresa at A Quilt and a Prayer for letting me know the book is Making Quilts by Kathy Doughty.  The quilt's name is Soul Searching.  She is making one too.

I discovered something rather shocking.  My collection of White with Black Prints is so limited that you are looking at pretty much the entire collection here.  I obviously will have to rectify this soon.  I would have liked to have been able to have 24 different ones so there would have been no repeated fabrics like I did with blues but the only way to have done that was to include prints with grays, which I did not want to use.  You'd think with a stash the size of mine nothing would be in short supply.  I know better.  There's always a reason for buying more fabric.  Don't you agree?

Linking with:  So Scrappy and Free Motion by the River and Live a Colorful Life and 
Sew Fresh Quilts and Sew Much Ado and Cat Patches

Reading Challenges

Often while reading a book one feels that the author would have preferred to paint rather than write; one can sense the pleasure he derives from describing a landscape or a person, as if he were painting what he is saying, because deep in his heart he would have preferred to use brushes and colors. 

Pablo Picasso

As I have confessed previously here on my blog I am a serious bibliophile.  This obsession started as a child.  As I was reading one of my favorite blogs last week, I was reminded that there are blogging worlds out there that doesn't involve quilting.  Deb at A Simple Life was telling about the reading challenges that she has decided to participate in this year.  I think I may have stumbled over one of these before in the last couple of years but I didn't investigate it at the time.

After reading up a little on the subject of reading challenges on several blogs I have decided to participate in a couple of them.  I may decide to add more but I'm starting with just 2.  I have been making a list of all of the books that I read or listen to for the past 4 years.  This has been interesting.  Things really changed a couple of years ago when I got a Kindle for my birthday.  I have been listening to audio books for quite a few years while I quilt, sew and ride in the car.  The Kindle has changed the number of paper books I read.  I mainly read FREE books and have downloaded over 700 of them from Amazon.  FREE ebooks are a mixed bag of quality.  Some are self published and suffer from a lack of editing.  Some are free for a short period of time when a new one by the same author is being released.  I wouldn't say they are always great quality but I usually just download from the Top 100 List.

My local library has a great collection of audio books which I can select from.  I frequently pick up NEW books from there too.  I buy only a few books each year since I can get more than enough from the library to fill my needs.  The ones I buy are usually non-fiction.  Quilting books of course top this list but I buy a few other genres also.

So what Reading Challenges am I going to do this year? I decided to do the Monthly Mix Up Mania. This challenge you to read a book for each letter in the year. That's right, a title for the J in January and the A in January, etc.... 74 books total!

The other challenge that sounded like fun is Color Coded Reading Challenge. What quilter wouldn't want to play with color? This one will take some research and planning. Looking at my list from last year there were only 2 books that would have fit in.

As soon as I have the time to type it, I will be adding a page at the top of the blog that covers these challenges.  Since the first one started last year I have filled in the list from what I have read then.  I still have some work to do to finish it up and I will have to be on the look out for books that will fill in the missing letters.  Got any recommendations for it (E, J, N, R, U & Y) or the Color Challenge?

By the way I thought you might like to know how much I read last year.  Here's the breakdown and total.  Maybe if I didn't read so much I would get more quilting done but I mostly read (books or the Kindle) at night when DH wants me upstairs with him or when I can't sleep which happens way more than I would like.
2013 Total 121
Books:  25
Audio Books:  47
E-Books:  49

This doesn't include a number of Quilting Books that I bought and read.  I need to start tracking those too.

NewFOs for 2014

Whatever we learn has a purpose and whatever we do affects everything and everyone else, if even in the tiniest way. Why, when a housefly flaps his wings, a breeze goes round the world; when a speck of dust falls to the ground, the entire planet weighs a little more; and when you stamp your foot, the earth moves slightly off its course. Whenever you laugh, gladness spreads like the ripples in a pond; and whenever you're sad, no one anywhere can be really happy. And it's much the same thing with knowledge, for whenever you learn something new, the whole world becomes that much richer.

Norton Juster

I am going to join up with Barbara again next year in her NewFO Challenge.  It's really not much of a challenge for me to start NEW projects anyway.  My challenge comes with being able to FINISH the OLD ones.  LOL

Now Barbara and many of those that join her in this endeavor make a rather exact list of projects for the new year.  I didn't last year and I don't think I will this time either.  I planned to use some of the templates that I have hoarded accumulated over the years. I even bought some new ones this year that I had to add to the list.

This is my list from last year:

Templates and Patterns to be Used:  Progress Noted in Blue

1.  Tumbler by Marti Michell - Top Completed 2013
2. Accu-quilt Studio Tumbler Die - Top Completed 2013
3. Wheel of Mystery
4. Strips & Curves  9" Basic Set by Quiltscapes
5. Strips & Curves Set II
6. Strips & Curves Flowing Ribbons, 8" Block
7. Strips & Curves Advanced Set; 3", 6" & 9" Blocks
8. Strips & Curves Mini Beg & Borrow Set, 6" Block
9. Storm at Sea Template by Marti Michell
10. Kaleidoscope Ruler by Marti Michell
11. 60 degree Triangle Ruler by Marti Michell
12. Radiant Suns Pattern
13. "S" Curve Triangle Block by Waterfall Quilts
14. Leaves Galore Templates, 3 sizes
15. Rapid Fire Hunter's Star, Large & Small
16. X Blocks, 7 1/2" by Quilt Queen Designs
17. Wonder Cut Ruler
18. 9 degree Wedge Ruler by Marilyn Doheny Used for Tree Skirts
19. 10 degree Wedge Ruler
20. 15 degree Fan Ruler by Bethany Reynolds
21. 120 degree Angle Ruler
22. Fat Cats 12" 30 degree Ruler
23. 30 degree Triangle Ruler
24. Tall Triangle Ruler
25. Tri-Mate Ruler
26. Apple Core
27. Half Clam Shell Template, 8"
28. Ax-Head, 4"
29. Swirls, 8"
30. Cracker, 2" x 3"
31. Boondoggle Ruler
32. Curved Slotted Ruler by Karla Alexander
33. Colorado Log Cabin
34. Angles Aweigh Set 1 by Margaret Miller
35. Angles Up Set 2 by Margaret Miller
36. Anglin' Along Set 3 by Margaret Miller 

I still want to do some tutorials on these templates for you.  Let me know if there is a specific one you would like to learn more about and it might get moved to the top of the 'to do' list.

I also I want to join the RSC14.  I have been reading several blogs, including Barbara's, that participate in this one.  Since two of the quilts I have on my list of want to make are Rainbow Color Schemes why not.  I want to make a Storm at Sea (have the templates) and also a Dancing Stars by Amy Ellis why not.  I will be using templates for the later one even though her directions are for paper piecing.

I also have a new toy workhorse in the Studio to use. I'll have to post more about the templates I have bought to use with it another time.  They are definitely at the top of the 'to do' list.

Then there is the embroidery unit for my new Dreamweaver.  I had hoped to get some Christmas Lace Ornaments made on it but so far it hasn't happened.  There are still a few days left before Christmas.  Maybe it will happen. I'm still reading the manual and can't make it to my new owner classes until January.

That's about as far as I am going with plans right now.  As you can see I shouldn't get bored anytime soon.  Plus, I have to keep you entertained too!

Linking with:  Catpatches

Nine Lives

Dogs come when they are called; cats take a message and get back to you. 

Mary Bly

I didn't have to think about it very long before I decided which quilts to enter in the Blogger's Quilt Festival.  I decided on this one fairly quickly because it is one of my favorites.  It was made for a guild challenge that I participated in a few years ago.

The challenge was to make a quilt using as many fabrics that had circles or dots in it as possible.  I had a group of Black and White Nine Patch Blocks from a Block Swap from a Longarm List that I had participated in a few years before.  When I looked through them I pulled the ones that fit the description best.  I had some Laurel Burch Fabric that I knew would work well with Black and White Prints so that's what I went with.  The Laurel Burch Print had a lot of circles and dots in it too. I pulled my bright star colors from the border print.  Most of them have circles or dots.   After playing on EQ for a little while I had my design done.

Nine Lives

Here are some close up shots so you can see the prints better.

More Cats on the Back

I quilted on my longarm using a variegated thread and floral panto-graph (which doesn't show up  because the fabrics are so busy).

This quilt is entry number 33 on the ROYGBIV page.

You can see my other entry The Sunny Side if you click here.

Thanks to AMY for giving quilters so much eye candy and a chance to share our work on Blogger's Quilt Festival.  Make sure you check out ALL the categories!

Linking with: Sew Many Ways

2013 NewFO Challenge

I learned this, at least, by my experiment; that if one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours. He will put some things behind, will pass an invisible boundary; new, universal, and more liberal laws will begin to establish themselves around and within him; or the old laws be expanded, and interpreted in his favor in a more liberal sense, and he will live with the license of a higher order of beings. In proportion as he simplifies his life, the laws of the universe will appear less complex, and solitude will not be solitude, nor poverty poverty, nor weakness weakness.

If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put the foundations under them. 

Henry David Thoreau

Barbara over at Catpatches is having a link up of the 2013 NewFo Challenge. Since I am apparently not able to actually finish hardly anything I may as well plod along creating more projects to clutter up my studio.  It's a good excuse as any to cut up perfectly good fabric into small pieces.  
My plans to finish two projects this month went out the window when I began having knee problems which has made the trip down the stairs to my studio become a very real possibility of a fall.  Since I would rather not have things go from bad to worse I have been confined upstairs with no sewing machine or projects in hand.  When I send my husband down to fetch items for me I have to remember exactly where they are and all the needed elements.  I will be working on a solution to this and hopefully not hearing bad news from an MRI next week.
I am a notions junkie.  When I had my shop (and even before) I had to try new rulers, tools and notions to keep up with the industry and offer new ideas for quilting.  Since I don't need to buy any more fabric (since I have such a large stash) when I do stray into quilt shops or shows I still by the new tools that come on the market.
I actually made a list several months ago of the expensive templates and tools that I have bought and have not used.  Tell me I'm not the only one to do this. I thought it might be a good goal to try and actually use some of these expensive objects in 2013.  

I actually began with the latest one I purchased last month when I cut out the Christmas tumblers quilt.  This month at the charity quilting meeting I used the Accu-quilt Studio cutter to cut out another tumbler quilt.  I will be able to compare the ease of construction with these to sets of blocks.  Again I would prefer to be able to play at the design wall with them but I think that the charity quilt could be figured out on EQ7 because it has a limited number of fabrics.  Maybe I can get a sewing machine upstairs after Christmas and get something done!

Templates and Patterns to be Used:  Progress Noted in Blue

1.  Tumbler by Marti Michell - Cut Out
2. Accu-quilt Studio Tumbler Die - Cut Out
3. Wheel of Mystery
4. Strips & Curves  9" Basic Set by Quiltscapes
5. Strips & Curves Set II
6. Strips & Curves Flowing Ribbons, 8" Block
7. Strips & Curves Advanced Set; 3", 6" & 9" Blocks
8. Strips & Curves Mini Beg & Borrow Set, 6" Block
9. Storm at Sea Template by Marti Michell
10. Kaleidoscope Ruler by Marti Michell
11. 60 degree Triangle Ruler by Marti Michell
12. Radiant Suns Pattern
13. "S" Curve Triangle Block by Waterfall Quilts
14. Leaves Galore Templates, 3 sizes
15. Rapid Fire Hunter's Star, Large & Small
16. X Blocks, 7 1/2" by Quilt Queen Designs
17. Wonder Cut Ruler
18. 10 degree Wedge Ruler
19. 120 degree Angle Ruler
20. Fat Cats 12" 30 degree Ruler
21. 30 degree Triangle Ruler
22. Tall Triangle Ruler
23. Tri-Mate Ruler
24. Apple Core
25. Half Clam Shell Template, 8"
26. Ax-Head, 4"
27. Swirls, 8"
28. Cracker, 2" x 3"
29. Boondoggle Ruler
30. Curved Slotted Ruler by Karla Alexander
31. Colorado Log Cabin

So here's to Castles  Quilts in the Air for next year! Now to put foundations under them!
Do you think I should do some tutorials on them as I use them?  Let me know if you would be interested in seeing some and which ones in particular you are interested in.  Maybe you can give me some motivation.

100 Day Hustle

What you get by achieving your goals is not as important as what you become by achieving your goals. 

Zig Ziglar

Did you know that the end of the 2012 is less than 100 days away?  Time continues to fly by at an every increasing speed!  Kelsey over at Kelsey Sews is having a 100 Day Hustle to help procrastinators like me get things done before the end of the year.  So I decided to give it a try.  Maybe I can get the things on my UFO Challenge done as well as a few other things that need to be finished.

Here is what I'm putting on my to do list:

The quilts listed on my 2012 UFO Challenge.

3 Blog Posts for the 3 Blog Hops I'm in the first 10 days in October.

2 Charity Quilts

4 Longarm Quilting Jobs

There is probably a few more things that need to be and will be done but that's all I've got to list today.

Say a prayer for me to stay on task and get them ALL done!  A little extra help couldn't hurt!

UFO Challenge Pictures

Work expands to fill the time available for its completion.

Cyril Northcote Parkinson

known as Parkinson's Law

OK, Now that the year is more than half over I finally get around to posting pictures for the UFO Challenge that Judy over at Patchwork times is doing.  I wanted to get a picture of the whole tops but finally gave up on the idea and just did what I could.  I used my design wall for the smaller ones but I can't get a full length  picture because to how the room is set up.  I think I've figured out a way to do it out on the edge of my deck but since it has been in the high 90's and above lately the idea just lost it's appeal.

So here's the pictures of what I still want to get finished this year.  Of the 12 I started with I have one done, but I have made progress on two of the others.

Sunflower Blooming Nine Patch

1. Sunflower Blooming 9 Patch - The top is together, it may need a border or two. 
The picture shows about a fourth of the quilt but you can't see the center.  It is pretty big.

Margaret's Irish Chain

2. Margaret's Irish Chain - Needs a few more blocks and borders.  
My daughter pieced this one when she was in her teens and working at my shop.  
She did a pretty good job, it was her second quilt.

Here's a close up.

Can you tell she loves animals?

Sports Quilt

3. Sports Quilt - Ready for the Longarm

Cobalt Blue Stars and Burgundy Plaid Homespun

Watercolor Log Cabin

4. Floral Log Cabin - Needs borders, this is a close up shot.  
The blocks are 10" square and it is king size.

5. Fall Leaf Flannel 4 Patch - Ready for the Longarm   FINISHED!!! May 2012

You can see it HERE.

Blue Skies Tribble Trouble

6. Blue Skies Tribble Trouble - Ready for the Longarm.  This one is about queen size.  
It was fun to make and I used a variety of sky prints in it.

Hunter's Star

7. Hunter's Star - Needs borders.  This was foundation pieced and was NOT fun to make.

Hunter's Star Close Up

Hunter's Star Foundation Side

Batik Circles

8. Batik Circles - Needs borders.  
I really love this quilt!!!  I want to do a really good job quilting it.

Circles Close Up

Out of the Bag

9. Scrappy Out of the Bag - Needs borders - Progress: Borders On, Binding Cut.  

This is one of Judy's patterns.

Bears in the Farmhouse

10. Bears in the Farmhouse - Needs final border.  Another of Judy's patterns.

Shortcut to School

11. Shortcut to School - Needs borders.  A Trudie Hughes pattern.

Winner's Bouquet

12. Winner's Bouquet - Blocks Done, - Progress: Center Sewn, Needs Borders, Fabric Selected.

I have the border fabrics pinned up.  Still debating the inner border.  This is a Terry Atkinson design.


That's the list.  I'm linking to the Quilter in the Gap 3rd Quarter Finish A Long 
and Judy's Design Wall Monday
and Freshly Pieced WIP Wednesday
and Sew Happy Geek

May Color Palette Challenge

I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work.

Thomas Alva Edison

I didn't need any more new projects but when Judy Laquidara of patchworktimes.com started talking about her feather lessons I knew I wanted to try to do it.  I had bought this tulip print in the last year or two because I loved the colors. When I was starting to pull together some stash fabrics for the Carpenter's Star quilt she is using for the lessons the tulips jumped right out at me.  I just happened to have some batiks that matched nearby and so I was soon cutting triangles.  After I started working on it I realized that it was close to the colors in the May Color Palette Challenge that Vicki Welsh is putting together. It still isn't a finished top but the center is together.

Carpenter's Star Center

Vicki has a great blog that I have been reading for years.  She is currently doing a color lesson of Fridays that is great.  I also won a giveaway of a years membership to the Quilt Show from her blog back in March.  It was the first time I won anything from a blog in all the years I been entering.  Thanks Vicki I love getting to watch Alex and Ricky!  When I was trying to find the green narrow border fabric I could only find this one in my stash, the color was close to what I was looking for but I didn't like the print.

First Border Choice

So I went out to look for something better and came home with this:

Second Border Choice

After looking at it on the design wall I decided that there was too much blue in the green to go with the warm colors in the rest of the quilt.  Although it matched the tulip print very well it just didn't work with the yellows, oranges and plum tones.  A few days later I came home with this print:

Third Choice A Winner!

The very next day Vicki had this post http://vickiwelsh.typepad.com/field_trips_in_fiber/2012/05/color-theory-7-temperature.html which explains why it worked.  Isn't it great when your decisions are affirmed! Nice to know I have not forgotten what I learned in my Art classes all those decades ago too!

UFO Challenge

The majority of men are bundles of beginnings.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Judy L. at Patchworktimes.com is having a UFO Challenge again this year so I decided to join in and see if it will help me actually finish some of my quilts.  She has a wonderful blog that I read almost everyday and she has a great sense of humor too.

So here is my list of 12 quilts I'd like to get completed this year.  Some are ready for quilting and some are just blocks.  I'll try to add photos soon.

1. Sunflower Blooming 9 Patch - The top is together, it may need a border or two.
2. Margaret's Irish Chain - Needs a few more blocks and borders
3. Sports Quilt - Ready for the Longarm
4. Floral Log Cabin - Needs borders
5. Fall Leaf Flannel 4 Patch - Ready for the Longarm   FINISHED!!! May 2012
6. Blue Skies Tribble Trouble - Ready for the Longarm
7. Hunter's Star - Needs border
8. Batik Circles - Needs borders
9. Scrappy Out of the Bag - Needs borders - Progress: Borders On, Binding Cut
10. Bears in the Farmhouse - Needs final border
11. Shortcut to School - Needs borders
12. Winner's Bouquet - Blocks Done, - Progress: Center Sewn, Needs Borders, Fabric Selected