Old meets new

Hi everyone! I hope you have begun to thaw out from the major storm that hit most of the US this past weekend.  Amazingly, we did not get snow, just lots of rain followed by rapidly falling temps.  The high on Sunday was 48, with a low of 16.  It was crazy!

Since we couldn't really go anywhere or do anything, and I didn't want to work on a paper, I spent two days in the sewing room and got a lot accomplished while the hubs was in the other room screaming about sports.  Something about pass interference.  Anyway, I went through the UFOs and discovered that I only have eight that need some piecing work.  I tossed one and repurposed the fabrics set aside for it, and made an actual paper list of the others.  We'll see if that helps get them done.

After that, I felt so virtuous that I went ahead and started another project!  Hey, I also worked some on a UFO, which should be done soon, so I felt entitled. Here are the first three blocks for that new project:

I guess I officially have another work in progress!  These blocks use some of the coral fabrics I pulled last week, and a few other fabrics, too:

I decided to go ahead and add some olive-y greens and some happy yellows to the corals, and then threw in a few aquas for a little zing.  Some of these are small scrap pieces, but mostly these are fat quarters and half yards.  More than enough for the blocks I am making.

When I was making those two mug rugs for my sister's birthday, I was looking through the Tula Pink 100 Modern Blocks book and really liking some of the blocks in there.  Since all of those blocks finish at six inches, I decided to combine the old with the new and make a sampler using half modern Tula Pink blocks and half older traditional blocks.  It happens that I made a Sylvia's Bridal Sampler before I started blogging, and I still have the book, and all those blocks finish at six inches, so that was an easy way to pick out some traditional six inch blocks.  I think the "old" and "new" blocks will blend together just fine.

I've chosen 48 blocks for a sampler quilt that should end up a nice lap size.  I have no time line for this, but it should make a nice project to work on when I feel like it.  You know I chose traditional blocks with lots of little pieces, right?  Should keep me busy for a bit.

Finally, in the spirit of "old meets new," last night our daughter safely delivered a baby girl, so we are grandparents again! Just as thrilling as the first time.  Of course, she is absolutely beautiful and I can already tell that she is very smart, just like her mom and dad.  Lots of baby snuggles in my very near future!

Hope everyone is having as great a week as I am, and that you're staying warm!

Sharing at Let's Bee Social.

Roman floors

Hi all, and happy weekend! If you're reading this on Friday or Saturday, I am off at an academic conference, which sounds really dull but usually isn't.  Cross your fingers that my presentation goes well. I am leaving behind this post, though, to tell you about a new project that I just finished starting. Or started finishing.  Don't really know, but I'm quite excited about it!

We travel pretty often, and I've been to a lot of places around the world, many more than I ever thought I would back when I was a teenager stuck in a crummy school.  One of the places I've been to several times is Rome.  All of Rome is interesting, but one of the best places to visit is the Vatican, which I know is not really Rome but Vatican City, but you have to go to Rome to get there. If you like art, iconography, religion, symbolism, guards in very strange costumes, or random graves, St. Peter's is the place to be.

I'm always struck by the floors there. Weird, I know, but every one of them is a quilt pattern.  Take a look at a few pictures from my last trip:

Pretty sure this was one of the floors in a gallery on the way to the Sistine Chapel.  It's like someone threw several quilts on the floor. Or a really odd quilt show!

Here's another:

This one is also in a gallery, and I remember another artifact case just off the top of this photo.

One more:

This one is very near the Sistine Chapel.  The Chapel also has an interesting floor, but I was too distracted by the very large Michelangelo painting in there to remember to take floor pictures.  Plus the guards kept yelling "no photo!" every few minutes. It's one of our biggest memories of the Chapel.  (True fact--we got a wi-fi signal in the Sistine Chapel so we got to look up some of the paintings online while we were standing there. I love the 21st century.)

With all of this great inspiration, what's a quilter to do? Copy one of these for a quilt, of course! I've been meaning to do this for a year or more, and I finally got around to drafting some blocks and putting them together recently. I made drawings for a lot of the floor blocks pictured here, but I decided to make a quilt just like that bottom floor picture. Doesn't it look like a quilt already?

So far, I made up 6 blocks to test the pattern I drafted:

I think they look pretty good! These blocks will finish at 8 inches square. I originally tried to make them the same size as the floor blocks, which is about 5-1/2 inches square, but the measurements were so odd that I finally gave up.  (Yes, I measured the floor, down on my knees. I think people thought I was praying. My daughter practically disowned me right there.)

The blocks are all batiks, which I think mimics the marble pretty well. The dark is a navy blue, not a black, though I may use a black batik for a very narrow sashing.I haven't decided yet, or decided how big to make the quilt.

Anyway, that's my finished start for this week! Or started finish! I think what will really make this quilt great will be the fabrics, and I have to go shopping for some more because I really need batik solids for this. Won't that just be awful?

If you have floor pictures of your own, I'd love a look! Also, last reminder to leave a comment HERE if you would like to adopt an orphan project absolutely free.

Everyone have a great weekend! Hope you aren't spending it in a conference room!

Linking to Confessions of a Fabric Addict and also Finish it up Friday.

Stuck

Hi folks! How is everyone? I went out running today and didn't pass out or anything, so I'm doing great! I've been walking for years, about 3 miles every day, and that just isn't enough of a workout for me any more, so a couple friends have convinced me to try running. I have an app that they recommended that gets you into it slowly, and so far it feels pretty great. I'm on week 2 of 9, so I bet it gets harder as I go.

This week, I have a quilty problem that I need your help with. But first, a pretty picture for the top of the post:

Let's hear it for flowers! And spring!

Okay, my problem involves these:

At one point, several years ago, I started to make Bonnie Hunter's Pfeffernusse pattern, which is very good-looking, but oh baby--the strings. It involved both brown string triangles and neutral string triangles, along with red hourglass blocks. It was a LOT of piecing, piecing that is easy but very repetitive. I am sorry to say that I got bored and put it in a project box and there it stayed. I have 54 of those brown triangles, which I think was a heroic effort. They're all brown, after all.

This weekend I decided that it's taking up too much room in the closet and is never going to become the original pattern, so I pulled it out, sorted all the uncut fabric (not that much), and tried to decide what to do with it. I think I have a layout that I like, and it uses the triangles as essentially giant half-square triangles.  My problem: what color do I put with the brown to make the other side of the HST?

I auditioned a few colors, starting with the red which was in the original pattern:

The red is okay, but kind of dark. The beige triangles there are also an audition, but gosh would that be one dull quilt, so they are out. I could use a few of them, but I'd rather not. And I'm not making beige string blocks.

I also tried a green:

I like the green a lot better, especially since I have a bunch of the lighter green scraps, which would be interesting with the brown.

Finally, I tried a blue, which I also like:

Yes, I got a little lazy moving them around and just left the other colors up. I like the blue, but I think I like the green better.

So, what say you, oh wise quilters of the interwebs? What would you do with the brown string triangles? Which color would you put with them? Should I even attempt to use them or just throw them in the trash? (Yikes!)  I need to use that box for another project, so this needs to be decided soon!

Thanks for the help! Hope everyone gets in some stitching time this week. I am also still working on the log cabin blocks for the Kaleidoscope quilt. It's slow, but at least I'm working on it!

Linking to Linky Tuesday, Let's Bee Social and WIP Wednesday.

On a completely serious note, my heart and my prayers go out to the people of Nepal and surrounding areas after the massive earthquake this past week. If you are moved to help, try HERE, HERE, or HERE. 

Wind and rain

Hi all! How is everyone? I am blown away--almost literally! We are having a very windy, wet time. I would show you a picture of the new hairstyle the weather has given me, but it would scare small children at this point.  And we actually had some sleet/snow this morning. Noooo! Go away!

So, I started a new small project. It's not really another mini! I think I got the minis out of my system for a while. Okay, maybe one more, but for now there is this:

This is a little wool and wool felt candle mat kit that I found while cleaning out the dresser in the sewing room. It will make a nice hand project for the evenings.  Seems like it should go fast, too, though it looks like I have to adjust some of those leaves.

And hey, I actually worked on some of my projects! Okay, one project, the Kaleidoscope quilt. Now that I've been away from it for a couple weeks I'm a little excited about it again. The first thing I did was work on these:

These are the large flying geese for the outer edges of the quilt.  I made 52 of them. And now I don't have to make any more! I used the Easy Angle and Companion Angle rulers and they went pretty fast.

I also finished up the first cutting for the log cabin blocks:

Whoo-hoo! There are a LOT of those strips. The red and white pieces are the centers. The directions want me to stitch each new log onto an uncut strip of the next color, then trim it after stitching and use the next part of the strip on the next round, etc.  Anyone ever made log cabins that way? It seems to me that it would be better to measure, cut, and then stitch. (Easier, too.) Too many things to go wrong the other way. I know I could figure out how long to cut each piece if I sat down with it, but I think I'll just make one and write down the measurements as I go so I can measure and cut for all the others.

Finally, because Deborah asked to see my sewing space, here it is:

Yeah, not very impressive. An old kitchen table, an old desk chair (that seems to be marking up the wall--oops), and some sewing implements. The little plastic container there is what I use for threads and bits and pieces that get cut off.  Then it can all be emptied into the trash at once. The Ott light is essential, as are the glasses.

Here's the cutting area:

It's not very impressive either! This is just one of those craft tables that you can get at many places. It actually has another leaf this same size that folds out, but that was too big for me and I ended up just piling things on it. This works. And I finally took down the curtains, which gives me so much more light. It's actually a great space to work on. 

Now that I see it in pictures, I have this urge to repaint and redo this whole room. I better go sit down with some tea and chocolate until this feeling passes, because it could really get me into trouble!

Hope you get some sewing done this week!

Linking to Linky Tuesday, Let's Bee Social and WIP Wednesday.

New projects

Hi folks! Is everyone snowed in? Oddly, we are not. All of our snow went south and east, which is okay with me, but I know some of you may not be very happy about it. Believe me, I can totally relate to how you're feeling. It's happened to us many times. The only thing to do is make some cocoa and wait for it to be over.

So, this weekend I cleaned my main sewing machine and changed the needle. I swear that I could fill a quilt with the garbage and lint I pulled out of that thing. How does that happen? I got all the buildup out and then oiled the machine and it is now very happy. After I finished that chore, I made these:

Happy blocks, though the blue ones still need squaring up. Some friends and I are doing a swap using this free pattern from Victoriana Quilt Designs. It's a very cute quilt, but the directions were hard to understand. At least I had a hard time wrapping my head around them. Plus, anybody else get really nervous when you're sewing for someone else? I was a wreck! But I think I did okay with it in the end. We'll see when I get everyone else's blocks.

I also pulled this out of the closet to start on it:

Isn't that a great-looking quilt? This is a BOM kit that I bought from someone who no longer wanted it long after 2008, which is the date on the pattern. Okay, maybe I bought it from her in 2010, which is now five years ago, but don't judge me. The whole time that this was in the closet I thought that it was a kit for a wallhanging, but lo and behold it's for a king size quilt! Which would make sense if I had actually paid attention to how much fabric was in there. So now I feel a lot better about paying more than $100 for it, but really dumb because I could have been using it on my bed for years.

I grabbed this block to start with, which is month 2. Don't those fabrics look yummy?

So, that's my new project! I figure if I can do a block a week or something I'll get one more thing out of the closet and have something pretty for the bed. I think there are 12 monthly envelopes. I really should have checked that before I decided to start it, but I was so stunned by the fact that it's a king quilt that I forgot.

One more project that I started this week involves this series of posts from Kimberly. I don't have a big stash, but I did pull everything out of the closet, which is how I got interested in making the new project to begin with. She has some interesting ideas. More on this as I go along!

Hope everyone stays warm and dry and that your power and water stay on. Whatever you are doing, stay safe. And make someone else shovel the driveway while you get some stitching in!

Linking to Linky Tuesday, Fabric Tuesday, and Let's Bee Social.  Be sure to stop by!