Quilts From My Sewing Machine #5, Christine's Summer

It's another glorious Saturday. I came home yesterday with a virus, but I feel better today. I guess it wasn't a virus...it sure felt good to sleep most of the day though!

This Saturday is my turn for the sharing of family quilts. I like the story behind this one. It's about a sweet, giving friend of mine.

Name:  Christine's Summer
Life Quilt #13

Begun in April 2008 and finished November 2008

Size: 46" x 53" (lap)

Pieced by myself and Quilted by Ann L

I decided that I would start making quilts and humanitarian items for the guild and the Church. My first project was a pinwheel quilt. I had found some red plaid 5” squares in Marie’s things and decided they would make a cute single bed quilt for the Church. The Church Humanitarian site said they needed twin size bedspreads and quilts. I counted up how many blocks I would need. To make the single size I needed 63 block and I did my math and found I'd have 68 blocks!

 It was after I made all the 68 half square triangles that I realized that it took four half square triangles to make a block. I never have had much luck in quilting math! Obviously now I wouldn't have enough for a single quilt. But, no matter, I could still give it to the community quilts. I now had 17 blocks. I could make a 4x4 block quilt, which amounted to a baby quilt, and have one left over. What I really wanted was to make a 4x5 block quilt to make a rectangular lap quilt. But I lacked 3 blocks to do that layout.

I decided to cut down 3 or 4 of the red pinwheel blocks to make smaller blocks and border them with a plain fabric. (1-31-14: I notice now that only one red block was cut down. And it bothers me! I want one or two more smaller red ones. I found some good blue plaid fabric in my stash and made 3-4 large pinwheel blocks and 3-4 smaller blue plaid blocks with borders. (1-31-14: There are only 2 small ones and 1 large. I guess I changed my mind.)

I was ready to put the top together, when tragedy struck! I fell and broke my right hand and all quilting came to a halt while I had the cast on.

After the cast came off, I still couldn’t get right back into quilting. The first day after my cast was off, I spent a blissful day quilting. Then there was payback: my hand hurt miserably for a week. My PT told me “Bad Girl!” and I had to temper my enthusiasm. The new quilting regime was quilt for an hour and ice hand for 20 minutes, quilt for an hour and ice hand…

The backing is a lovely turtle batik. I was saving it for
something special. Christine chose it for the backing
and it did, indeed, get used for someone special.

When I got the pinwheel quilt top completed, it was very cute. I began having second thoughts about giving it to charity because I liked it so much. Enter Christine. Having a cast on my hand had stopped me from being able to tend to my flower garden, just as the beginning of prime springtime. At church I was bemoaning the fact, when Christine Lopes, a girl just back from her first year at BYU, offered to help me weed and plant! It was a match made in heaven. All summer long Christine came over weekly and we put in a morning in the garden. Even after my cast came off, she continued to come. She was having a blast and I thoroughly enjoyed her company. We capped off the summer by painting my refurbished, redecorated quilting room.

Stupid thread! It was invisible until I
took the picture, honest! Then it
just jumped out as I clicked the shutter.

I showed Christine the quilts I had done and was working on. She liked them all but it was clear she like the little pinwheel quilt a lot. I was happy to find just the right person to give my lovely quilt.

I delayed a little in getting it done, thinking that I would be able to machine quilt it myself. Alas, when I tried machine quilting on a charity quilt my hand was sending painful repercussions to my brain. I shelved the idea and Christine’s quilt went to the quilter.

As I mentioned above, Christine helped me paint my new quilt room. It's good I had help because the part I did made my hand ache. Here is a picture of Christine with our cat, Daytona and shelves from the sewing room. 

 Not to be left out, my dog, Miko, kept us company!

I wish it wasn't so wobbly, but this is the best picture I have of my sewing room. Walls are lovely sage green. Dresser is both cutting and ironing space . Drawers hold notions, fat quarters and plaid cut-down shirts.

And here's another wall. I keep fabric in the stackable Sterilite drawers, plus more containers on top!

I Love Words

I'll confess. I'm a thesaurus junkie. Hello, my name is Terri and I'm a ... When I read a book, three
quarters of my brain is following the plot, but the other quarter... Oh my goodness! What are you doing? I'm looking at ways the author puts together a sentence,   describes something, and the interesting words used. Even when I write this blog, my handy online thesaurus is never far away.


Some of my favorites:

plethora: just the way it rolls of the tongue and the meaning also
   "overabundance"

splendiferous: again a lovely word to just say for pure joy of it sound
   "splendid"

eclectic: another choice of mine both for meaning and for the way it sounds. Here's how I use it a lot: I have an eclectic taste in music.
   :selecting or choosing from various sources"

nefarious: great synonym for heinous, odious, horrible, vile...

and my list goes on, and on, and on:

The definitions above are from dictionary.com.

And here's some fun from Google and dictionary.com. Pictures from dictionary.com and Google Images.

Eleven British Terms That Flummox Americans:

British Saloon

Saloon in US

Pants in US

British pants

British Muppet
(stupid person)

Muppet in US

British Jumper
(sweater)

Jumper in US

Digestive Biscuits
not-so-sweet cookie/cake/cracker

Biscuits in US

Braces in the US

British braces

Bonnet in US

British bonnet (hood)

British boot

Boot in US

British dummy

Dummy in US

British pudding

Pudding in US

British Zebra Crossing
(crosswalk)

Zebra crossing in US

And now, students, you have had your lesson in Vocabulary. The added bonus is now you can go to England and speak like a native!

Ta-ta

Cheerio

Tarah

(all ways to say Goodbye in British English)

January Rainbow Challenge #1

I'm just finishing up on a great weekend. I spent a good deal of time on Saturday making quilt blocks for RSC 14. RSC is Rainbow Scrap Challenge. I had seen the posts from my blog reader last year and it looked like fun. It was geared in a way that I could take it at my speed.

I love challenges, but I definitely cannot do BOMs. I tried to follow a group doing the Farmer's Wife Quilt in one year. It meant two blocks per week. Argggh! I could barely keep up, well, not quite. I didn't keep up. It was only two little 6" blocks a week, how hard could that be?

Incredible Learning Line

Every try to make a 6" block with 75 pieces in it? Or 12 1-1/2" half square triangles? Along with 3 triangles (which with my math is half of a 1-1/2" half square triangle). Do you see what I have to deal with? Not with 6" blocks, though that was an incredible learning curve that basically didn't curve. No, I mean, trying to be a quilter with a no-math brain.

This is my math brain.

You pity me, don't you?

Actually this is my brain. All pretty colors
and flowers. This actually is about as good
as I can draw too.

If you are really liking my math brain above and you are a geek or mathematician, you can read the scintillating description of how the maze was computer generated below. But I'm thinking only my Talented Geek Son will understand it. Hi honey! Mommy finally wrote a blog that you will love!

The RSC14 is the brain child of this great woman who writes the soscrappy blog. Each month she picks a color and everyone makes blocks using that color. Some people are so amazing in the amount and variety of blocks they make. You can see January's blocks here in all their variety--it's really super to look at. And maybe you'd like to join. You don't have to be in at the beginning. Any takers?

You can use the badge on my sidebar to get to the information about the challenge.

I decided that I would make my blocks all in the same pattern. I chose the Snowball blocks. They are easy and don't take much time. I chose black as the triangles at the corners. I've not made a quilt with black to make colors pop, so this is for me!

Every Saturday there is a linky party for blocks of that month. Saturday was the last one for January. I didn't make my blocks until Saturday because the black fabric I ordered didn't come in until ________. (guess!) Nope! Friday.

Here's my blue blocks. There are fourteen 6" blocks. I decided on 6" because I wanted a smaller block; I usually make quilt blocks around 10-12". Then the number had to be divisible by three, so I was given the choices of 3, 6, and 9. Those numbers were in the running because the answers to x/3 = a number without fractions. 

I love anything that's going to use my stash and I have loads of blue. There's no reason for just 14 blocks, I just went through my stash and picked out fabrics that I really liked that would looked good to me for a snowball. Now that's my kind of math brain! I chose it because I like it. No fancy formulas. 

Thanks for moseying by and checking up on me!

I'm hooking up with the following blogs and I bet you'd love it if you traipsed on over and saw some cute stuff. The badges are on the right sidebar.

RSC14

Design Wall Monday at Patchwork Times

Show and Tell Tuesday

Linky Tuesday

WiP Wednesday

It's A Party

We Did It Wednesday

Needle and Thread Thursday

I Quilt

For the geek-minded
The following mazes were computer generated using a path digging algorithm. The generator maintains a list of all of the cells that have been added to the maze. At each step, it chooses one of the previous cells and randomly adds one of its unvisited neighbors to the maze. If a neighboring cell contains a perpendicular hallway followed by an empty cell, then this cell is also a valid choice to be added, replacing the hallway with a crossover cell. 9/10 of the time, the chosen previous cell is the last one that was added to the maze allowing the algorithm to construct longer paths without branching than if the previous cell were chosen completely randomly. Furthermore, the neighboring cell that is in the same direction as the last choosen neighbor is given a higher priority to encourage the creation of straight hallways that allow for crossovers. The direction of the crossover is based on the parity of the cell coordinates.
The mazes are output in Postscript, rendered with anti-aliasing using gv, and then screen captured. More recently, I'm rendering the mazes using POV-Ray.

Eventually, I'd like to find an algorithm that can create the non-tree like mazes that make up my three sheet weave mazes.

Marvelous Marie #3

Drumroll! The inaugural Saturday post of Marvelous Marie and Quilts from My Sewing Machine.

Without any question, the first post will be of one of Aunt Marie's quilts. You'll not want to miss the previous blogs about my Aunt and quilt muse. The first is Aunt Marie's history and the not-to-be-missed Gallatin Quilt.

Aunt Marie left me many quilt tops that she had made but not finished. Once her eyesight became poor enough, in her 80's, she couldn't hand quilt, she continued to piece tops. I have been working on these tops and thus these quilts are a collaboration between the two of us. The second blog is just such a collaboration between Aunt Marie and I called The 70's are Calling, They Want Their Fabric Back!.

The 70's Are Calling! R to L: Me, My Mom, My Sister at
my High School graduation in 1972

You want to know something that's wonderful about my Aunt Marie and Uncle Elbert? They helped put me through college! For four years they gave me a enough money to pay my rent and cover monthly expenses. Angels. My grandmother, Mom's and Uncle Elbert's mom, had died when I was in my junior year in high school. She left money to each of her four children. Aunt Marie and Uncle Elbert didn't have children. They said they didn't need the money, so they used it to help put me through college. Absolute angels!

Uncle Elbert, Aunt Marie and I at Disneyland the summer
before I started college.

Today's quilt is one I call Mystery Stars. I was well familiar with two of Marie's finest quilts before she died. This one I had never seen.

Aunt Marie made this quilt around 1955, the year I was born. Isn't a beauty! The polka dots are so adorable. I loved how she mixed it up and used plaid in a few blocks too. This quilt belongs to Nancy Drew now. I borrowed it from her to take it to the appraiser. It very nearly didn't get back to her because I love this quilt. A lot. A lot.

I took this to be appraised when I went PIQF (Pacific International Quilt Festival) in 2009. I was quite surprised to find that while the blocks were hand pieced, the sashing that joined the blocks together were machine sewn. Jaw drop!

My Aunt was a hand piecer/quilter all the way. She started quilting when she was very young, around 1913. She learned the "old-school" way. I would never have known she used a sewing machine on any quilt had I not taken this to the appraiser.

I wish I knew more about the history of this quilt. It doesn't have a label, because she never labeled her quilts. ALWAYS label your quilts! And no provenance. ALWAYS keep a provenance.

Because of my Aunt's quilts, I label my quilts and keep a provenance on them (see tab above). She taught me a lesson. I'm trying to teach you one too!

The appraiser was quite flummoxed about the star blocks. She'd never seen the block anywhere. She said, "You're Aunt liked to keep some mysteries in her quilts!" Her quilting was 8-9 stitches per inch. I'm not even going to tell you how many stitches to the inch I do. Or is that inches to the stitch? The blocks are a whopping 19"! I thought 12 was large...

I have close-ups of the blocks, but they are on my iPhone. The phone needs a replacement battery, which is winging it's way here.

To quote the appraiser, "This possibly could be made in California [where Marie lived] because the quilt's smaller size and lighter filling could imply a warmer climate. ...The Grandmother Clark catalog came out in 1931 or 1932; their pattern for Diamond Field is very similar to this one."

Grandmother's Flower Garden were quite popular in the 1930's. My Aunt's quilt has smaller hexies, is in great condition as well as it's unusual size (91" x 71") makes it of greater value.

Who cares about value? I only do it for insurance. And then again I wonder even about that. If the quilts were destroyed, no amount of compensation would recreate her lovely work.

I have close-ups of the blocks, but they are on my iPhone. The phone needs a replacement battery, which is winging it's way here.

I would love to make this quilt someday. I'd even more love to have this quilt. I'd even more, more love to let Nancy Drew keep it.

Just Call Me Mrs. X

Yup, that's me...Mrs. X

Or is it a jinx?

I keep thinking it's going to stop...

You might remember I was whining about how poorly my sewing was going this weekend...I was doing more un-sewing than sewing. I finally figured out that I was going to rip out my seams before I sewed them, if I could! It'd save time.

Yesterday I signed in at a school. I spelled my name wrong. Uhhhmmm, your name is spelled T-e-r-r-i. Not T-e-r-r-y.

Later I was writing an email. I signed off with: Thanks, Donna. My name is not Donna. I don't even know a Donna!

I went to quilt with my good friend for our regular Wednesday Quilt Night. I needed to wind a new bobbin. Tell me, is this what your bobbin looks like after you wind it?

This morning Noel Heart texted me. I tried to text back. My phone wouldn't send it. I'm in my house. I get good reception and the phone can also use wi-fi.

I tried to call her. The phone wouldn't put the call through.

I went to start my computer. It wouldn't come out of sleep mode. Never had this problem. Had to turn power off and start again.

Honestly, I'm afraid to go outside.

Who knows who I am today?

The Little Log Cabin That Couldn't

But first, a word from our sponsor: Me!

Terri, a quilter extraordinary, (PR to sell more copies) has released exciting news today via her website, Quilting Nonnie. We are thrilled to hear that this adventurous and intrepid quilter (now stop it! I'm blushing) is going to be sharing the history of her past quilts and that of her beloved Aunt Marie, who is her muse, with the blogosphere (translation: whoever visits). The news was greeted with wild anticipation by many.

TGS says, "I am looking forward with great joy to seeing the background of how Terri has become such a marvel in the quilt world!" SWH was heard to say, "Did you hear the marvelous news about Terri, that amazing quilter, is finally to break the silence and tell about her aunt, Marvelous Marie's, quilts. In another excited utterance, Hubby said, "I wish she'd just get on with it; the reporters constantly calling us and hanging around our house is a terrible nuisance!"

Terri was reached at home in her quilting studio and told us, "I am breathless. Simply breathless. And agog. Yes, agog. This is a project I've been wanting to do for years. Years. And finally I said to myself, "Self, when are you going to honor my public's request to hear more about Marvelous Marie and myself, Quilting Nonnie.

Quilting Nonnie, as she calls herself, and her blog, has revealed that these no-holds-barred narratives will appear on Saturdays in her blog. She will alternate weeks with her memoirs of her beloved aunt and her own quilts.

Previously Quilting Nonnie has published very few essays on either herself or her aunt. Previous entries about her aunt can be found here and here. Posts about Quilting Nonnie's superb quilts are here and here.

Pop Quiz! What quilt did I work on last week?

Wow! You're right! Yes, it was the Log Cabin quilt for my son and his "new" wife. (They've been married 18 months)

I think I've now figured out what I was doing last week. I was sewing seams so I could rip them out. Yes, my seam ripper and I love each other. At least what the seam ripper keeps telling me.

I was ripping out too short logs, logs put on the wrong side of the square, logs put on wrong side out, a whole set of blocks where I had put two yellows of the same fabric. And then finished the block. I had to rip out 6 rows! Times 5. Do the math. Now imagine how much I actually accomplished this week.

It's luck today is a holiday, because I actually want to make progress; defined as moving forward not backward.

At least my L/E progressed. Here are some of my favorites from last week:

It's the Design Garage Wall

Before the preview and look at my wonderful quilt, I wanted to announce that I finally figured out how to do tabs at the top of the blog!!! I've been trying for about nine months...but something didn't work. Well, last night I figured it out! It must have been the two naps I took yesterday!

There is a tab with my Quilt Provenances. It has a picture of each of my quilts I've finished, plus the numbers, and a write-up on each quilt.

The other tab is a list of the nicknames I use for my family in the blog. You can find out when I write TGS that it means Talented Geek Son, and that he is my third child. I guess this tab is a reference resource!

I'm very proud of my tabs. They are still a work in progress, as is some of the problems in certain parts of the blog. It's a journey...

One more major announcement! I put up my 2014 Quilty Goals in the right sidebar. Take a peek and shake your head at my over-ambitiousness!

Meanwhile, back at the ranch...

My design wall took on a whole new twist today. My log cabin is up to 50 blocks! Wahoooo! It's too big for my flannel quilt wall, so outside I went.

When I have a quilt that is very big, I use the side wall of the garage. I take a queen size flat sheet and thumbtack it to the wall. After that, I pin the blocks to the wall. It's not perfect, but actually it's no worse than my flannel one. The lighting is perfect there also because it is in the shade. It's sunny out today but the color showed up beautifully on the picture.

There I am in the shivery cold, well, shivering. I've got the step ladder and I'm thumb tacking a sheet to the garage wall. I don't know about you, but I find it near impossible to get the layout right on a Log Cabin. Thank goodness I didn't live back in the 1800's. I'd never be able to build a log cabin!

I'm following along with the quilt layout from Quilt In A Day. I'm drowning out here. I keep having to re-arrange blocks. Sometimes two or three in a column. It's amazing I even have hair left. I've got about half the blocks on and my husband, in robe, opens the front door. He can clearly see my handiwork. Then he says, "Okay, okay! I'll paint the house!" He's such a card! He proceeded to tell me three blocks that were turned wrong. I'm bummed. I was following the book! So I coerced him (with Bambi eyes, which usually don't work) to come out and help me finish putting the blocks up.

With my husbands quilt life- and hair- saving expertise, here it is:

What do you think? Right now it is 6x6 and the blocks are 14" finished. That comes to 84" square. I'm making this a king-size for my TGS & his OSLW. They have a California King, which is just longer than a King.

I was figuring that I'd make the quilt 109" square without a border. Doing that would be adding one more row of blocks all the way around, making 8x8. So here's the dilemma:

Do I add another row of blocks all the way around to make it 8x8? The quilt would then be 112". I hadn't planned on doing a border, so that would be the correct size.

My other idea is to stop here and put on a border. If I put a 2" dark border, then a 5" lighter border, then another border of 2" dark, It would come out about 116" square. A little on the big side.

Please help me choose! If you have an idea for a different border, let me know!

And now for the silly part. I ran out of the outside dark blue fabric. I cannot tell you how many times I went back to the fabric store and bought more, then more. I didn't have a pattern, so I was winging it with fabric amounts. I thought I bought more than I needed, better safe than sorry. When I realized I needed more to finish 13 more blocks, I panicked! Run around, pull your hair out, hit your head against the wall panic.

I realized I'd need to know the name of the fabric to look for more. Unfortunately, all the remaining fabric had been cut into strips. I finally found four that had writing, but I was mising the last part of the name of the fabric. To the waste basket I go, looking through the strings left from squaring off the fabric. Voila! I had pieced together the name of the fabric!

I discovered several sources on the web. Interestingly enough, they were all 108" wide back. Hmmm. I bought mine as 42" fabric. Oh well, less yardage to buy, more money per yard. It will work.

I'm sharing with: Patchwork Times, What A Hoot Monday, Show & Tell Tuesday, Linky Tuesday, WiP Wednesday, It's a Party, We Did It Wednesday, Needle and Thread Thursday, and I Quilt.

Please, please, pretty please, leave me a comment with a suggestion on border or no border, ideas, etc. I will love you forever!

Hi Ho! Hi Ho! It's Off to Work I Go!

You're right, I shouldn't be complaining about going back to school after a two-week break...but...



I always feel guilty complaining about going back after vacations since most everyone works "regular" jobs, like my husband. Every weekday, 8 hours a day, every week of the year except for a couple of weeks of vacation. I'm glad there are people who can do it, because don't think I could!



I've been having to put off and put off reveals of my latest projects, since they were Christmas presents for family. It's difficult to keep secrets when family reads your blog! The one I made for Sweetie was opened up Christmas morning with me there! In an earlier post, I mentioned how she is crazy about zebra print! Her parents got her a sheet and comforter set in zebra print. And I, I made big zebra throw pillows!

I got some great fleece zebra fabric and thought of just backing it with some other plain fleece. I was at the cutting counter with my two choices, when I looked behind me at one of the rows. And there it was! This gorgeous black curly "haired" fabric! It was sooooo soft and Perfect.

I found some super pillows at Goodwill. They were 22" square, made of foam. They have this wonderful feel. They are firm but bounce back when you come off them. I don't know how long it's been since I've had a nice foam pillow like that.

Sweetie was so thoroughly happy with shining eyes! What a perfect expression to tell me that I had gotten it right! I took a picture on Christmas (I thought) but never did find it on my camera. Nancy Drew took a picture tonight and emailed it to me.

My other present has still not been given! Here comes a shocking reveal for when my oldest daughter, Noel Heart, reads this blog. The gift is for her. She and her hubby (who I need to find a "blog-name" for) have been so sick since before Christmas. They haven't been able to come over here and celebrate Christmas with both her families. Next week, I promise!, I will let you know what had been on my sewing table until December 20th.

I'm following along with A Year of Lovely Finishes and have made my January goal. The First and Most Important quilting goal is to finish my son and DDIL's wedding quilt! If you've been reading for a while you'll know this is a long-running story. My January goal is to finish 40 blocks of the Log Cabin and 16 of my Sister's Choice Quilt, which is a Leader/Ender.

Doing math, thank goodness it's only division, it works out to 10 Log Cabin blocks a week and 4 Sister's Choice blocks per week. And the astonishing thing is that I met that goal This Week!!!! So I am well on my way to meeting January's Goals!

Next week, I will get all of my Log Cabin blocks on the design wall for a picture! It's huge--the blocks are 14" finished. I now have somewhere around 60 finished. I'll make sure and count them for next week.

I'm sharing my progress on the following super blogs. Make sure to go over and look at all the amazing projects quilters are doing. All the links are in the right sidebar.

Design Wall Monday at Patchwork Times
Show and Tell Tuesday at I Have to Say
Linky Tuesday at Freemotion by the River
WiP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced
We Did It! Wednesday at Sew much ado
It's A Party at Creative Princes
We Did It Wednesday at Sew Much Ado
Needle and Thread Thursday at My Quilt Infatuation
I Quilt at Pretty Bobbins

A New Blog Party to Urge Me On!

Well, hello! Aren't I posting a lot the past few days. Just say thank you to Mr. Virus.

I'm not that polite...Boo, hiss Mr. Virus. It's my Winter Break you commandeered, you weasel. I looked forward to 6 (six, 5+1, 6-1) lovely days of quilting. But no, you evil being, you have kept me from quilting for two days. Go away! Don't come back! You are indubitably not welcome here ever again! *Poof* I'm feeling better today and can quilt--hurrah!

For my loyal followers, there has been quite a bit of repetition in the blogs since New Years Day. I'm just getting my ducks in a row for the start of a more organized and git-off-yer-butt 2014.

I'm joining up with A Lovely Year of Finishes. Finishing is on my New Years Goals (here) and this seems like a splendid way to urge me on. I've put the link from Sew Bitter Sweet Designs in my right sidebar.

This month my goal are:

1.  Make 40 (10 per week)  more Log Cabin blocks for my TGS & OSLW wedding quilt. With any luck, I'll have it to them by their second anniversary! (In June), which is amazingly ambitious. That's quite a push. But I would be happy with by the end of summer, giving me time while I'm not teaching during the Summer Break.

Here's my Log Cabin on my design wall:

This is a by-golly beauteous quilt-in-the-making.

2.  Make 16 (4 per week) more Sister's Choice nine patches. I'm making a Sister's Choice quilt that is on Bonnie Hunter's Quiltville Quips and Snips blog. I'm doing as a Leader Ender quilt, so it takes a little more time. In essence, I'm doing two quilts at the same time.

This a picture of the quilt from Bonnie's blog

A sample of nine patches I have made

I have made 50 blocks out of the 140 needed. I'm making a king-size quilt.

See you at the end of the month!