The Itsy Bitsy Spider(web) Border Dilemma

It's early morning here--good morning to all! I've been trying to write this blog for about 45 minutes. It's hard to type when something is crawling up your leg with sharp claws. And I have pajamas on that are thin cotton and only come to below the knees!

My little charmer has fallen asleep on my lap and now I can type with both hands!

The Little Charmer

Who can resist this little girl? Her name is Squirt and she is a bundle of love and no bigger than a minute. You may remember that I lost my cat last Spring. Within a few weeks, I was pining away for a kitty. I decided to wait until summer when I'm home and could devote time to her. Once I got home from vacation, I was able to wait 4 whole days before hubby and I were off to the animal shelter.

Squirt stole my heart the minute I picked her up and she snuggled under my chin! She's settled into the house very well. My dog and hubby's cat aren't not so sure about the little interloper...both of them are afraid of her! Bunch of wusses!

Squirt in my inbox

Looks like our house is going to be turned upside down. She's been chewing on paper in my inbox, swatting my houseplants (they make great toys), and generally having all those great kitty adventures.

Squirt perfecting innocent look after playing
with the houseplant.

Squirt's first night home

A couple of months back I was trying to figure out a border for my Spiderweb Quilt. I came up with what I thought of as a winning plan...only to sew it on and see it was definitely Not Working. That's when I turned to my lovely friends that read my blog and got ideas of how to improve my borders, which involved removing the borders I had put on!

Here is my latest version of a border. I chose a chocolate brown with colorful flowers or another with colorful sprinkles. I'm thinking of leaving on the yellow border. What should I do with an outer border. I'm adding wider borders because I need to make the quilt big enough for a queen size bed. The brown would be five inches wide. The next border would be about three inches.

And now, my friends, help me with these questions:

• Which border do you like? or do you think both of them stink? Personally I like the border with the flowers.
• Should I leave the yellow, swap places with the brown or use another color than yellow?
• What color should the third border be? Busy? Tone on tone?

Please leave a comment and let me know what you think. You were so helpful last time and I'm relying on you to guide me on my way to finish this quilt. (Hoping the flattery and whining will help you to comment!)

Happy Monday To All!

Check out other great design walls (links on left border) at:

Design Wall Monday at Patchwork Times
Show and Tell Tuesday
Linky Tuesday at Freemotion by the River
We Did It Wednesday
WIP Wednesday
It's A Party Wednesday
My Quilt Infatuation

Design Wall Monday: The Wall of Many Projects

I have a plethora of projects on my design wall today. Don't you just love the word plethora? It's got to be one of my top favorite words. I love how it feels as you pronounce it and I love it's definition. Who could ask for anything more? Who could ask for anything more! (I'm singing those last two lines). And why not? It's the first "official" day of summer vacation. I hope that's not groaning I'm hearing...I have been talking about it ad infintium  a lot.

And what greets me on my pre-first day of summer? Oh, hello, Mr. Virus! Oh, you've decided to come for a visit? I haven't seen you in a while. Yes, old "friends" shouldn't let so much time pass between visits. Come in? No, I think not; I'm very busy. Well! Aren't you rude just barging in like that!

First up on the design wall: I've added the second dark on the Log Cabin for the newlyweds. I haven't gotten it trimmed yet, but I have a great quilt afternoon with my friend, JP, today. Fun for days!

I've thought of a name for my Spiderweb quilt: Web of Friends. Most of the scraps in this quilt came from my own stash and from JP's, plus a few other friends. I look at the fabrics and say, "Oh that one was JP's or MF's. Pretty cool in my book.

Now I need help. On the quilt. I'd like to ask you to quilt it, but no... I'm not sure about the second border, the light blue one. When my husband and I were auditioning fabrics, it looked pretty darn cool with the quilt. It's all sew in, but now I'm just not sure. Is it too light? What do you think? Please leave me a comment with your opinion.

Sorry, picture got deleted by someone trying to clean up a file...

Here's a close up of the corner. The third border is midnight blue: dark, dark blue and purple. Lovely fabric. The corner is light blue polka dot. Ideas anyone? Remember, if you think I should replace the middle border, I'm sending to you to rip out the seams! I'm kidding. Maybe. Maybe not.

Sorry, picture got deleted by someone trying to clean up a file...

And here's a cutie. My little spool blocks are coming along swimmingly. I've finished the strippy part. Yesterday I tried out colors for the spool. Hit it in one! I have a very warm brown fabric and I think it's perfect! What say you?

And now, just because I'm crazy enough to try it, this is the fabric I chose for a twirly skirt I want to make for Curly. I found this adorable pattern on Craftsy. Nancy Drew loved twirly skirts when she was young, so I wanted to make this one for Curly. In time to give to  her when I go out there. In one week. Does the word crazy jump in your mind?

You must go to the website to see the cute dresses Mommies have made and shown in the comments.

Here's my fabric found in my stash. Thank goodness for "inheriting" my Sisty Ugler's and BFF MF's stash. They had lots of good bright colors.

If you've ever wondered why I call my granddaughter "Curly" in the blog, here's why....

I'm sharing this with: (the badges are on the right)
Patchwork Times
Show and Tell Tuesday
Fabric Tuesday

Design Wall Monday

Here's the beauty that I will be finishing today.

Before it was fully finished

Trying out borders

I have put on the two borders shown above and just have one more to go. The yellow is 2-1/2 inches and the blue is 5 inches (smaller than shown above). Once I got the light border sewed on I realized I would need a final border to stop the fading off of the blue.

Today the dark blue/purple 3" border goes on. After that comes the sandwiching! I am so excited about this. The spiderweb has been a leader/ender project, so it has been coming along at a slow pace. In fact, towards the end I went full at it and just sewed the remaining wedges.

I used a free pattern from Bonnie Hunter (click here) for this beauty. My last quilt was also one of Bonnie's and a leader/ender. I've done two other quilts as L/E. One I'm still handquilting and the other is the one I'm going to share tomorrow. I just finished it yesterday. Hurrah!

I will start quilting the Spiderweb soon. I am using Leah Day's quilting book (see previous post here). A fellow blogger, Stella, at Walking Life's Path, (click here)  is helping me to figure out what designs to use on the quilt. I'm so glad for her help!

I've given the quilt a name, "Charlotte's Web." Not extremely imaginative, but I am going to applique a spider on the front and then the web that Charlotte made saying, "Some Pig."

I am linking up with Judy at Patchwork Times for Design Wall Monday (click here). Check out other quilters projects!

A Few Photos from the Week

I've been perusing the links on Judy's Design Wall Monday. (click here) My design wall in the other room is empty, but here's a shot I took of the two projects I'm working on. I had just tossed both the quilts on my cutting/ironing table the other day. Later I glanced over and they were such a lovely jumble that I had to take a picture.

I'm making progress on these quilts, which are part of my February Get It Done list. The Spiderweb needs one more border and the sandwiching and quilting. Wait until you see what I picked out. It needed a dark border to tie it all together. I went and found a gorgeous, plain midnight fabric. It is a dark blue, or wait--is it dark purple? It's one of those fascinating colors that have two colors that show up different depending on what color they are next to. I love fabrics like that!

I have to sandwich and quilt the spiderweb. I'm doing a beginner's class for our quilt guild teaching them how to make a spiderweb. I showed it on Wednesday night last and seven people have signed up. If you're interested, the pattern is from Bonnie Hunter's Quiltville blog. (here)

The square in a square is just a teensy weensy way away from being finished. I worked on it all weekend. Mondays are my wonderful quilting day. My husband works late on Mondays so I get three hours of quilting after I get home until he arrives home. I worked on it today. I've got the sashing finished on the two long sides. It's pinned and ready to sew for the two short sides. After that it's just the binding. The square in a square was my first QAYG (Quilt As You Go).

I told my husband I was trying to think of the name for the quilt. It is almost completely 70s fabric. The 70s were an interesting decade for me. In the space of those ten years I graduated from high school, graduated from college, got married, and had three children.

Hubby came up with a winner: The Seventies Are Calling, They Want Their Fabric Back!

This is the same guy who helped me name an all-blue batik quilt: Jacques Cousteau's Undersea Adventure. You should hear the interesting names he gave his stuffed animals as a child and gives our cats!

A few pictures from this week:

Calla Lilies my hubby gave me when Newt died

Our swallow who is building a nest in the eaves above our front door.

TGS with one of my granddogs, Ginny

OSLW with the two granddogs

My dog, Miko, looking cute

Get It Done January

Well, well, well.
Well.

That's all the wisdom I have for today. No, come to think of it, here is a quilty saying:

My Great Grandma used to say she made a quilt] "by guess and by gosh". Then if it didn't turn out right, she'd say "I guessed it was right but by gosh it wasn't".*

That's about where I'm at with my January Git It Done... Judy over at Patchwork Times (click here) has a fun thing going. Each month anyone who wants to participate can make four quilting goals to accomplish in a month. On the last day of the month, everyone reports by linking into her blog. I'm here to make a full accounting.

My Get It Done January Goals and Progress:

1.  Finish Spiderweb top and sandwich.
I have one more border to put on and the top will be finished. I fell behind when I made a pieced border and then found it looked like a sock on a chicken's lip with the rest of the quilt.

2.  Finish Bricks & Stepping Stones top and Sandwich
I didn't do anything on this one. It's going to the back burner now; I have to start on my DWR.

3.  Finish Square in a Square
Not there yet, but close. It's a Quilt-As-You-Go. I have to hand-sew the last column. Add the columns around the edge by machine and hand-sew. Bind, with purchased binding, then it's done.

4.  Start DWR.
The first goal I actually finished!
I took down the box with all the DWR "stuff" in it.
I pulled out the pattern and read it.
I looked at the template and the tissue foundation.
I looked at my colors again, decided I needed more blue. Figured out whether to do random or planned method. Decided on both: blues will be in the same position throughout all, other colors will be random.
I decided what color for the background AND purchased it.

There's a lot of detail on this goal because my TGS and OSLW are going to be looking this over very carefully. I wanted to show them that "started" was more than opening the box, looking in and then closing it back up.

Tune in tomorrow for the February Get It Done.

* Pasted from <http://www.quiltingboard.com/pictures-f5/crazy-quilt-antique-hankies-t191083-3.html>

Stash Count Week 3

A Traditional Double Wedding Ring

I'm following Judy at Patchwork Times to do Stash Counts. Check over at her blog to see other's stash counts.

Well, well, well. I went and did some Serious Fabric Buying this week. I bought eight yards of this absolutely lovely butter colored yellow for the background of the Double Wedding Ring. The quilt is going to be king sized--arghhh! And DWR has a lot of backgouund.

 Serious Fabric Buying tends to happen when you've got to do borders or backgrounds on quilts. The exciting factoid is: everything I'm buying is going to be used in the next few weeks! Oh, mmmm, except for the five yards of cheddar that I bought for my somewhere-in-the-distant-future Cheddar Bow Ties. To my credit, I've already started saving fabric for it...and it was 50% off. And I love cheddar so I had to buy more than I need to keep some on hand. Then there's the 1 yard of orange halloween plaid (for my future Moth in the Window which I'm also collecting for...) and the orange crackle because I hardly have orange in my stash. But those two were 40% off. And it was a Holiday Weekend Sale and you know, you're not supposed to miss Holiday Sales. And I had been in the house quilting for 7 hours and needed to get out and get some fresh air. And I figured if I didn't support JoAnn's that they might go out of business...

AND...I'm blaming Bonnie Hunter for every last piece of fabric I bought. All the patterns mentioned above, except the DWR, are hers! If she didn't write a great blog about using scraps and have this friendly, fun personality, I wouldn't have been drawn in. And further more, how do you get scraps if you don't buy fabric in the first place? 

What's that you say? "Bad excuses are worse than none"? That's what Thomas Fuller said. I think I like that guy. Oh yes, I like him a lot!

Here's my report:

Used this Week:  4.25
Used year to Date: 7 yards
Added this Week: 15 yards
Added Year to Date: 15 yards
Net Used for 2013: -8.25 yards

The Good News and The Bad News

Are you a "let's get the bad news out of the way first" person or "give me the good stuff first" person. Hang in there a sec. I flipped a coin: it's Tails--bad news first. This isn't going to hurt you as much as it hurts me!

Remember all those "piano keys" I was doing for the border of my Spiderweb Quilt? I was selecting the inner and outer border, found the perfect combination and found that those keys make it look Awful. All that work. I spent almost a whole day last Saturday cutting and sewing these babies. I need to look on the bright side: there's a quilt in my future that is just waiting for those borders!

Good News: Speaking of Spiderwebs. I found eight completed blocks while looking for something else yesterday. Hurrah! I thought the quilt was squarish at 6x7 blocks but what can you do when you run out of the middle fabric? Now I will be able add an 8th row and get it more into a rectangle shape.

Bed is calling and when I wake up, it's a Holiday and I get to Quilt!

Psst...don't let anyone know I have an order coming in from Connecting Threads!  

Time for a Check-In

I just read in Judy's blog that we're half-way through January. Not that I didn't know the date...it's my only sister's birthday. But thinking of it as half-way was a bit scary!

1958: Left: Jan, 5 yrs old, Right: Me, 3 years old

 So in the interest of where do I stand in the race to finish all my Get It Done items, here is an update:

1. Spiderweb top finished and sandwiched: I'm still working on finishing the top---arrrghhh! I looked at the border that Bonnie Hunter has on Quiltville, which is where I got in trouble. I liked her piano key middle border so much that I just had to do it on mine! As I shared before, I've made all the keys and currently am sewing them together.

2. Bricks & Stepping Stones top finished and sandwiched: Nada

3. Finish Square in a Square:  Nada, but I have thought about it!

4. Start DWR: uhmmm, errrrr, moving right along to the next thing.

In my defense, I finally got to quilt a couple of hours last night. Before that I hadn't quilted since Saturday. I need to speed up...a lot! I won't be able to quilt tonight, but for a great reason. I'm taking  The good news is I'm taking Bright Sprite, my oldest daughter, and my grandson, Firstest, to see the Harlem Globetrotters! Lovely fun!

This weekend is a three-day weekend so that gives me a glorious amount of time to quilt!

Stash Report

I've been joining Judy L at Patchwork Times in her Stash Count for 2013. Actually I'm also doing "Get Her Done" and this weekend I participated in her first "Quiltathon" of 2013. Judy sure is a fun lady and her blog is a treat to read.

Without further ado, here is my 2013 Stash Count Week 2.
Used this week: 1.5 yards
Used YTD:  2.75 yards
Added this week: big fat 0
Added YTD: big fat 0

I'm not using a whole lot of fabric, but I'm in that stage where I'm finishing up some quilts. Just wait until I get to the backing!!! YeeHah!

Soooo, where did that hefty 1. 5 yards go?

Looky here:

This is my Spiderweb quilt that is on my Get It Done for January. What you see above is the completed, sewn together, waiting for borders Spiderweb blocks! Hurray for me!

I spent my Quiltathon, which was only Friday evening and all day Saturday making the "piano keys" border. I don't know what their real name is...but it is an adapted form of piano keys. It will be the middle border on the quilt.

First you cut 2 . 5 x 4 . 5 blocks from scraps; I had about half already in my stash. On to the neutral blocks, in cream white, for Step 2. I only had a few in my stash since they had to be cream and also no print of other colors. It took FOREVER to cut those out.

In the meantime I whined to my hubby about how much faster it would be if I had an Accu-Quilt Go. I spent a few hours cutting and sub-cutting. In all honesty I cut way too much. Arggghhh. But 130 sounded like soooo many! With the Accu-Quilt dream, I thought it would take only 30 minutes! But you know how that probably turns out. The Accu-Quilt is #5 on my list of quilty things to buy from my pin money.

Onto step #3...sew cream squares to rectangles. I especially love that pink and turquoise plaid! Yummy!

Times ticking and it's step #4. Sewing them in pairs...

chaining style!

I want you to know I'm being very brave here, or is that foolish, showing you that I still have my Christmas tree up on January 12th? I am going to take it down this week! Of course, I said that last week (I'm an inveterate truth-teller--meaning I don't know when to stop babbling!) then school started and it was so busy and I didn't sleep well, and oh, you know...

From here on it's sewing pairs to pairs, etc. etc. etc. and they're all pinned now. I did that during the SF 49ers game! They won!

This week: getting that border finished and sewing on all three. It'd be nice to accomplish more, but it's nice to stay in reality once in a while.

Changes Are Coming!

I am definitely a spotty blogger. Mostly what I post is for my family. I plan on getting back to my original plan for this blog:

Quilting 

I'm currently working on finishing three quilts: 

Spiderweb Quilt

 

Marie's Square-in-Square

 

Bricks and Stones

 

 Movies

I've watched two movies this week...a treat I can only do while I'm on vacation.

Dark Shadows & Dark Knight Rises

 

 

Books

Just finished reading: Memoirs of a Geisha

Currently reading:  Mr. Pettigrew Takes a Stand, New Testament, Book of Mormon

Next: A Grand and Terrible Beauty

Parenting

Here are my babies!

Nancy Drew at 2 years old (now 33)

Noel Heart at 2 yrs old (now 35)

 

 

 

Talented Geek Son at 2 yrs old (now 31)

  Now What?

My dilemma then was what to do about posts for my family? The answer is to create another blog for our family. I'm very excited about this venture!

What will the family blog be? Stories about our family. I have some pretty amusing stories about my children. I will have to keep my children anonymous (see how long that idea lasted?) since they would be embarrassed if their circle of friends knew the family skeletons! Now I'll have a place to post videos I like instead of emailing them. I send them lots of emails with things I find interesting. I'm sure they're not always thrilled, and maybe get tired and don't even look. I know how much they look forward to each of my emails to find what new amusing, interesting and weird things I've found.

Family blog= stories, amazing videos, jokes, recipes, eclectic items and  inclusion of the weekly family letter.

Oops! Don't tell anyone! They don't even know my New Year's Resolution to write an old-fashioned letter to all of them. Shhh!