Digging, finding, sewing, packing, etc.

I'd like to start by thanking all of you for sending me good thoughts about packing and moving.  Henry is adapting fairly well so far, though we can see the effects of the change of routine.  We are making steady progress on the house, but Friday is coming up very quickly.

The very hardest room to pack up has been my craft room.  I tend to have too, too many ideas.  I make a lot of piles of random supplies with big, big plans in my head.  And then the piles beget more piles.  I feel like it was an archeological dig down in my basement to some of the ideas I had when we moved in six years ago (or before).  Anyway, in order to tie up some loose ends, I ended up sewing and cutting a lot more in the past two weeks than I had planned on.


I cut up all of the fabric for Ben's quilt and then packed it up.

I cut up some squares for a patchwork muted red, white and blue quilt.  I've had this idea swimming around in my head for 3 years and I finally collected enough fabrics for it.

I had one starter block received from the 3x6 bee (mrssorrells2009 on flickr) and a stack of fabric that this block inspired.

I started by cutting the fabric into strips to make one large log cabin block. Then, instead of folding up the strips and putting them away, I just sewed them all into a quilt top.

I look forward to getting a batting and backing on that after the move.

I also dug up some quilt as you go squares from the Mother's Day retreat with crazymomquilts and I finished quilting all of those.  I hope I can get some of them sewn together on the car ride.

As I've been packing, the mail has been coming in with ornaments in the Trim the Tree swap.  I'm a lucky, lucky swapper this year!

Oh gosh.  I'd love to chat more and show off more fabric and quilting and project pictures but I really have to get back to cleaning and painting and bubble-wrapping everything.  I have big craft plans for the drive and for the first couple of weeks before the boxes arrive by moving truck.  Cross your fingers that all of the knitting and hand sewing projects I have in my head will fit in our tiny little car.

Finished sometime last week...I think.

My camera is chock full of pictures to upload and things to write about, but I can only take a brief break in the packing to post this.

This is my Four Corners Quilt designed from one jelly roll and a 8" square of fabric (plus batting, backing and binding).  The tutorial for the quilt top is here.

I am really proud of the quilting on it.  I started with four circles (traced a dinner plate) and my walking foot.  Then I followed the previous quilted line as I circled out further and further until I ran into other lines.  It really was a lot of fun.

I did hand quilt the three center circle lines because those tight curves are tough with a walking foot.

This quilt went to live with the two best neighbors in the universe.  I wish we could tuck them in our car and take them with us on our move.  I'm crossing my fingers that we win the good neighbor lottery again the next time we buy a house.

We take off on Friday, but I'll try to pop in again later this week. 

A bit frantic

We are moving soon. I've lived in Wisconsin all of my life, and now we will be making the big move to Maryland, perhaps as soon as the beginning of December.  I always like to close up loose ends by the end of the year, but packing up an entire house in a matter of less than three weeks is a bit much.  So today's post is a jumbled mess of about four posts all jammed together so I can focus on packing for the rest of the week.

First up is my sunglasses block for Tamiko in the Ringo Pie Bee.  She asked for Magnum P.I. themed blocks.  This block was due in June, but it took me quite awhile to find the right fabrics and the right techniques to achieve my vision for this block.  I hope she loves it as much as I do.
 

Next up is a recent distraction.  I've been collecting fabrics and perusing patterns for a quilt for Ben for many months now.  He is a mathematician and a birder.  He loves camping, patterns and lists and taking notes about the birds he sees.  I fell in love with Leila's Boy's Nonsense tutorial for the Value Added project and everything came together perfectly. 

I made eight blocks this weekend and now I'll have to pack them all up to save for another sewing day after the move.

My Trim the Tree Ornament Swap mittens are done.  I added a little detail work with size 8 perle cotton.  I hope my partners like them.

And you saw this quilt a couple of weeks ago.  It will be traveling to...

...the Pine Ridge Reservation along with the quilt below to keep a couple of babies warm this winter.  The quilt above was my first ever attempt at baptist fan quilting.  The one below was my second attempt.  I think things got better, but I still need a lot of practice. 

Okay, I'm off to pack up my sewing and crafting mess into boxes.  I'll have to save a few hand projects and maybe a couple of other tidbits to work on.

Uncorked

Now that I'm "unstuck" on the Gypsy/Bohemian block for the Pastiche Bee, I find myself sewing "like the wind" to get all of the other ideas out of my head. I finished this porcupine design last night and pieced it today.

And I finished this portal block yesterday. This was another one I was a little stuck on. I think portals are a great theme, but the only idea I had was falling down the rabbit hole. I hope it the recipient likes it.

Well, I can't chat more. I have to clean up new stray threads and old dust bunnies. We have a babysitter coming over so Ben and I can go on a date!

I hope you have a good night, too.

Struggling with a theme

I am ridiculously behind in bee blocks (I think I have seven to make? or more??), but I hope to fix that starting with this block.  This is an accordion block for the bohemian/gypsy theme for September in the Pastiche Bee.  This theme stumped me for the longest time.  I just didn't even know where to start.  Then I finally sat down with wikipedia and looked up both terms.  That was less than inspiring.  I tried google images and got nowhere.  Lastly I tried searching everyone's uploads on flickr with the term "gypsy" and I stumbled on this image.  Finally, it clicked.  I had to do an accordion. 

Incidentally, this block was sitting on the floor last night (my craft space is already covering my dining room table so I've been cutting fabrics on the floor) and Henry came up and tried to play the keys on this accordion a couple of times.  Then he called it a mandolin.  I guess we need to review his folk instruments again.