Doctors, 1 becomes 2, and templates...

No sewing has been done in the past few days. I have been dealing with some health issues and having tests run and new doctors to meet.
I am trying a couple of new medicines and they are making me pretty drowsy so I don't trust myself to even go in the sewing room. I hope I can visit my fabric this evening, but we will see.

 I found the one on the right in a box of single blocks. I have been wanting to make some of these blocks for a VERY long time but never took the time. After some thinking about it I realized I had some Marti Michell templates that might make the blocks without me having to draw templates or do paper piecing.

Yee Haa!  Looking at the blocks above I made the one on the left with these templates. Pretty good if I do say so myself! It sewed up fast since all the corners have that double blunt thing happening.

Have a great day,
Diane

What have I been up to?

A little of this

A lot of this

A few of these

And voila!

A close-up of the fabrics. I love the flowers.

A few of the tools I can't function without.

What have you been doing?

Diane

Looking for the next project...

What do we have here? Oh I know! This is from a class I took in Mobile taught by my friend Nancy L. several years ago.



The fabric is really much prettier than it appears here.



Do you ever have days when you just can not understand where you are going with the directions? I can remember two times vividly. This class was one of them. I could not for the life of me get it! I understood the whole concept of Irish chain, but the technique she was teaching was going right over my head. When I left the class that day I folded the fabric neatly and placed it in a zip top bag and just knew I would eventually give the bag to Nancy to complete for a charity quilt.

Today I saw the bag and didn't remember what it was at first. As I pulled it out and examined what I had done and what I had cut I was shocked at how clear I remembered the class and the instructions. The thing I didn't understand that day just seemed so easy and straight forward.

Well I have my next UFO project picked! :) This will make Nancy happy. She has been the recipient of a couple of my "I'll never make this" projects, and always makes them. One of them I saw last month when I was at her house and it was beautiful. I still love the fabric I picked but I knew I wouldn't finish it. It was a bargello top that I got all the strips pieced, cut,and laid out on the flannel fabric and folded it up to transport home. It got jumbled and messed up and I was too frustrated to figure out the layout. She puzzled it out and it is now beautiful.

Another finish! Call me crazy.

 Well I call it a finish. I don't have to have it quilted and bound to be finished, yet. I hope soon I will require quilting to be part of my quilting. :^)

This was a disappearing 9 patch that I was playing around with, made from scraps. It isn't pretty but I like it.

I am pretty pleased with myself. I have three UFOs out of their boxes and, and...into a different box. LOL Ok, kinda anticlimactic huh? I really need to do something different.

I was just telling my son the other day doing the same thing every time and expecting something different to happen is plain crazy.

I wonder what I will find when I search the UFO boxes this time? :)

Diane



Done and done!

The top is done! Yeah!
 After I decided on the border fabric and had it cut I looked at the selvage where it was called "Bar-B-Que". How cute. I don't really think the name goes with the design, but I like it with the houses. I love BBQ!

Diane

Instead of where's Waldo...

For those who can't find the mistake...YEAH!

No, I'll show you. I'm not too proud to show my mistakes. Look at the third row from the top and the fourth house in...the window is down on the ground instead of up...so I call it a doggie door instead.

That is when Joseph said "And your little dog too" would make a good name for the quilt. But since I usually don't name quilts it doesn't much matter. :)

After I asked if anyone saw the mistake I realized there are more mistakes than just that one, but you can't see the other one. Toward the bottom I have two houses of the same color right next to each other. How is that for odd. That is the only color I used twice for a house and they ended up next to each other! Can't be proud around here! LOL

Diane

And your little dog too!

I thought it was a clever idea to do the red and cream with the black strip. Now it kind of reminds me of a film strip. I tried several border fabrics that fell flat but this one picks up all of the colors I used in the houses, so it might stay. Opinions?
My son says the top reminds him of The Wizard of Oz. Now he is going through the house humming the tune when the tornado hits and the witch is riding through the sky on her bike.

Diane

Still working on UFOs

Since I am still semi focused I am still working on UFOs. I know this one was started when I was house hunting for the move to Florida two years ago. Actually that is not a very long time, in UFO years. I have some that are as old as twenty years. Why is it spelling the word doesn't look as bad? :)

Making this top was great until I started making them tip and dip. I was about 75% through with the tipping and dipping when I realized every single block was now on the bias. This in turn made the whole quilt top on the bias. Which in turn made my life ever so fun when I went to but the black border on. In the short time between putting the top together and adding the first border (maybe 18 hours) it had stretched and grown almost two inches on the outside edge on the two long sides. Apparently I had not starched all of my fabrics before cutting into them. Oh well! I managed to get the black on and it doesn't look bad. After I spritzed and ironed it it came back into shape.

BTW, this is a pattern from Bonnie Hunter's website. I had so much fun making the houses and picking the fabrics. I made rules for myself. I could only use fabrics that were already cut in my 2" strip drawer for the blocks. I was able to make most of the tip and dip triangles from my 3.5" strip drawer, but since was a size that is only from leftover stuff it was rather low so I did cut some strips. The black wasn't from my drawer but it is a few years old, from when I worked at the quilt shop in Mobile.

PS, There is a mistake I found after I got the whole top together...can you find it?

Done is better than perfect...

I really like the way it turned out, but...why is there always a but? I still don;t like the white next to the 9-patches. Oh well, it's done and it's pretty.

Thank you everyone for the suggestions and help.

Diane
PS. excuse the messy room. I have been rearranging everything and haven't put it all in it's place.

Too much?

I love the blue against the white, but what if I make a darker border?
This is the exact reason it got put away! UGH! I can't make a decsion.

I need help,

In more ways than one, but today I need help with an UFO I simply must get finished. I am tired of moving the box from one place to another feeling guilty it isn't finished.

This is a top I used as a teaching piece in one of the last classes I taught in Mobile. I love the fabrics and even though the blocks are big and clunky looking to me I like how the whole thing looks together. My problem is I never could decide how to finish it. I can't decide if it needs a border or not. It doesn't look finished to me but for the life of me I can't figure out what should happen next.

I put the yellow next to it and it was ok, but not great. I tried every other color that I had used in the top, but again, ok, and some were NO! but none of them looked great. Then I tried the white/purple background fabric and liked it but wonder if it is goign to take away from the 9-patches in the sashing that it will rest against.

It shouldn't be this hard! LOL

If you have an opinion please share with me so I can get this finished and off of the design wall. I refuse to put it back in the box!

Diane

When will I ever learn?

When will I learn to not let words that others say mess with my head.  I have always been one who rethinks what others have said, in a hurtful way, until I can't get over the hurt. Instead of letting it roll off my back I play it over and over in my mind.
Some people just can't seem to be happy unless they make someone else unhappy. Why do I have to let them work their nastiness on me?

I always play this in my head at times like this...it is from one of my favorite movies You've Got Mail.

Joe Fox: [talking via email to "Shopgirl"] Do you ever feel you've become the worst version of yourself? That a Pandora's box of all the secret, hateful parts - your arrogance, your spite, your condescension - has sprung open? Someone upsets you and instead of smiling and walking away, you zing them? "Hello, it's Mr Nasty." I'm sure you have no idea what I'm talking about.



Kathleen Kelly: [talking via email to "NY152"] No, I know exactly what you mean, and I'm completely jealous. What happens to me when I'm provoked is that I get tongue-tied and my mind goes blank. Then I spend all night tossing and turning trying to figure out what I should have said. What should I have said, for example, to a bottom dweller who recently belittled my existence?


[stops and thinks]


Kathleen Kelly: Nothing. Even now, days later, I can't figure it out.


Joe Fox: Wouldn't it be wonderful if I could pass all my zingers to you? And then I would never behave badly and you could behave badly all the time, and we'd both be happy. But then, on the other hand, I must warn you that when you finally have the pleasure of saying the thing you mean to say at the moment you mean to say it, remorse inevitably follows.

I'm pretty sure he was correct and I would hate the feeling of hurting someone else with my words, but sometimes I wish I could zing back.

Putting away

I have spent the time I have been home trying to put away all of the items I brought back. Whew, where will I put it all?  Ray was a bit shocked when he came to help me unload the car and saw how full it was. LOL

I forgot that my back and left leg doesn't like a Honda Accord and that is what I drove for the past two weeks. I am now paying for it. My leg and knee is hurting really bad and my back is very stiff. I hope tomorrow it will all be better.

Blogger still won't let me do pictures so I will try again in the morning.

Later
Diane