Wednesday, October 31, 2012

Mental Progress - W.i.P. Wednesday

I can't stand long enough to cut fabric for blocks and I can't sit and sew at the sewing machine, both as per doctor's orders.  But I can imagine and draw and play.

One of my challenges is that I become bored pretty easily.  If I had to cut and sew the exact same block with the exact same fabrics 48 times, I couldn't do it.  The quilt would go into the donation box or become an eternal UFO.  But sewing 48 of the same block using different fabrics, even if they are the same colors, is not a problem.  I enjoy scrap quilts.

One of the drawings above may become my next quilt project.  Imagine the Greek Crosses (without the triangle corners) in reds and creams/creamy yellows.  Maybe.


But then maybe that block on the bottom with the narrow little strips between the four-patches could be fun.  I have lots of 1" strips that were donated by some other quilter to a recycle center. Maybe the squares should be larger.  In a variety of similar-colored plaids.  Or....

There are so many options, and so much time to think about them.  Four and a half more weeks.

I'm still quilting the String-X so at least my hands are involved in quilts in one way or another.


I'm participating W.i.P. Wednesday at freshly pieced.

Saturday, October 27, 2012

Speedy Quilters. Or, I'm Slow, You're Fast

When I look at the sidebar of my blog (or in google reader or at the sidebars of others' blogs) and see the images of quilts other people are making and I'm so impressed with all the amazing work, the activity, the creative energy, and the speed at which people are making quilts.  I love looking at everything you've made and there are so many quilt patterns and techniques I want to try.  Some of you seem to finish a new quilt every few days or, at the very least, every week!  It's amazing! 

I, on the other hand, just finished stitching together the quilt I've been working on for more than a few weeks. I'm still hand-quilting the same quilt that I've been working on for months and months.  I plod on -- while I see all the beautiful new work the rest of you share every day!

I know I'm not alone in feeling this way.  Just the other day Samantha at Sami's Quilts and Crafts shared A Little Whine describing very similar thoughts.

Is it true that the rest of you finish a quilt each week?  It can't be so, can it?  It must just seem so when I see new images of quilts every day when I scroll through blogs.

I want to work faster. I want to do more and finish more in a shorter amount of time.  I hope I will . . . after I'm back to "normal" and walking again.

Happy stitching!

--Nancy.


Friday, October 26, 2012

The High Five Top is Finished


I can't tell you how thrilled I am to have this quilt top stitched together.  (Okay, so the whole quilt isn't finished but I finish in bits and pieces.)  I'm showing only a small part of it and I'll tell you why in a minute.  The squares are 4 1/2" finished and the top is 16 squares by 20 squares (a total of 320 squares), making the finished quilt a generous single bed size of approximately 72" x 90".   This quilt is for my daughter who loved the small one I made for her nephew/my grandson.

I originally thought I would make it 15 x 19 squares but when I laid it out it just seemed too small.  So I found myself stitching more squares to make it larger.  I needed to have the top sewn together by last Wednesday evening and I was still making squares on Tuesday.  You wouldn't think they'd take very long but because each square uses five fabrics, I couldn't push them through the machine as quickly as if they'd been all the same.  I was hoping to get the quilt layered before last Thursday but it didn't happen.

I plan to hand quilt it with a fan variation.  The quilt pattern is Amanda Jean Nyberg's "High Five" from the book, Sunday Morning Quilts.

The push to finish?  I had foot surgery last Thursday and am limited to whatever I can do with my foot elevated -- for six long weeks.  I could have quilted it if I'd gotten it layered.  I will lay or hang the quilt top so I can photograph it or maybe wait till it's quilted and then post it.  Whichever I do, it will be a while before I can take a good photo.

I'm linking this post to

Happy quilting!

--Nancy.


Thursday, October 25, 2012

Oh, To Be Able to Dance!

Rita Hayworth, Fred Astaire, Gene Kelly, and lots of other
dancers, too. High energy and lots of fun!

Saturday, October 13, 2012

Uh-Oh! Pinholes!

This . . .
 

. . . caused this!

The safety pin snagged the fabric and pulled several inches of it.  And that's not the only pin that's caused broken threads and snags.  My pins are sharp so dull pins are not the cause.  What happened?

I used large safety pins to pin-baste the layers of this quilt together.  It's one of my first quilts -- a practice quilt, obvious by the uneven stitches.  If this quilt were a gift I would be very unhappy.  As it is, it's my String-X scrap quilt (a la Bonnie Hunter of Quiltville) which will become a picnic quilt or a floor quilt.  Nothing fancy or fabulous, but still.  Holes?!  I've darned one of them and will probably have to search the quilt for others that need repaired, either by darning or patching. 

I don't know what's required to prevent holes in the future.  Baste with thread instead of use safety pins?  I thought pins were helpers but not this time!


This is a Shadow Shot Sunday post.


Monday, October 8, 2012

Now Why Did I Come In Here?

Does this happen to you?  You walk into a room for some particular reason - maybe to pick up a magazine or look for something - and suddenly forget why you're there?

If you're like me perhaps you thought it was old age creeping up.  Not so!  Well, in my case, old age is creeping up but it's not the cause of this problem.  Turns out doors are the problem.

Psychologists at the University of Notre Dame have published the results of a study which discovered that walking through doorways causes an event boundary in the mind, separating one set of thoughts from the next.  The old thoughts or memories stay in the old room (figuratively).  The doorway opens to the brain a new, blank slate for new thoughts and memories in the new room.

I guess this explains why I have to walk back into the room where I first had the thought to remember why I went into the next room.  Strange how that works, isn't it?

What a relief to learn that doors have been causing my problem.  Thank goodness for researchers and studies.

Read here for more details about the study.
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