Quilt Musings

Diane Gaudynski class sampler

2007-10-17T08:30:00.000+08:00

I finished up my samplers for the Diane Gaudynski seminar I took, though they are only quilted, not bound. This is the basic practice piece -- not too much change, but I especially like the Celtic Circles in the upper right corner.

I am actually surprised how well my feather sampler turned out. All the feathers were freehand, and one interesting aspect for me was to play with the thread color. Diane Gaudynski tends not to use varigated threads because she feels you get better results choosing where you want what colors. I am not that happy with some of my choices, especially the gold in the upper left corner. It actually looks fine in the overall picture, but in real life I think it would have worked better for the feathers rather than a background motif. Smaller scale and not quilting the grid may also have worked better. Ah well, I do not think i am motivated enough to tear that whole section out and redo with a less dominant thread.

Below are some details, where you can see the effect of different thread colors. I wish I had some of every color available!

Diane Gaudynski Seminar

2007-10-05T12:59:00.000+08:00

My one real quilting experience this summer was that I was able to attend a 2-day seminar with Diane Gaudynski. For those of you who don't know her, here is her website. She does absolutely amazing, detailed machine quilting, all on her home sewing machine.

The seminar was excellent. I was able to borrow a Bernina with BSR from the shop where the seminar was held (one model up from the one I use). Diane brought in a number of her quilts to show us, and they are even more stunning in person then in books and on the web. She is a very encouraging teacher, and she introduced a number of motifs that could be used for background as well as helping us to work on our feathers. One of the most interesting things I learned was to use different colors of thread to give depth to your quilting. I think I am a convert now. I just wish I had easier access to quality thread! She also recommended using wool batting because you get the loft of trapunto without the work. I used it for the class samples and loved it.

Here is a picture of a sampler we worked on to practice the different designs. I have filled it out since, but this picture shows what I was able to do in class. And some close-ups of some of the practice squares. Diane teaches students to do what she calls echo feathers -- instead of backtracking on parts of the feather, you leave a small corridor between them. It was a new way for me to do them. Her lines are, of course, perfectly parallel. Mine are not!

In this picture you can see the feathers and the "folded towels" texture, as well as some small "pearls" to the right of one of the feathered area. All of this is done with minimal marking.

The next picture shows some clamshells and some pebbles to set off the feathers. Again, for the clamshells, I only needed to mark parallel lines!

And finally, one of my favorite backgrounds -- Tsunami. I love how this one looks, but it would take quite a lot of thread if done on a large part of a quilt, lol.

I also made a sample with feathers that uses different color threads in the background. That is for the next blog!

My Summer Purchases

2007-10-05T12:45:00.000+08:00

Although I didn't get much quilting in when I was in the US this summer, I did have some time to visit quilt shops. Here is the fabric that I got:
You can see I mainly purchased batiks and tone-on-tones. I hope to put them to good use this year! I also got 20 yards each of Kona Snow and Kona Black, but no need to include a picture of that.

I also managed to get some thread in various colors, some templates, and new gloves for machine quilting with. I don't have pictures of those, but I think I did pretty well.

I'm back!

2007-09-20T17:15:00.000+08:00

This is just a short post to say that after a long hiatus from blogging, I am back. I was in the US for the summer, with no access to a sewing machine, and very little quilting going on. There was however, a good amount of shopping for quilting supplies. I may have some pictures to come. I also managed to take a wonderful class with Diane Gaudynski. I will post some pictures of my learning experience in the next week.

While the summer was a wonderful time to visit friends and family, it was marred by one terrible occurance. Our Elkhound Sally died over the summer, apparently from tainted food that must have been imported into our area. My son and I were in the US, and my husband had to handle the whole thing himself. Despite the vet's best efforts, her kidney's failed and there was no hope for recovery. Sally has left a big whole in our lives. We are planning to get another dog, but first we are doing a lot of research to find out how we can make sure we get a healthy dog with good temperament into the country.

Thought for the Day

2007-06-03T08:04:00.000+08:00

Good judgement comes from experience. Experience comes from bad judgement.: Unknown, quoted by Jim Horning
Quotations by unknown authors

Here it is

2007-06-02T12:22:00.000+08:00

This is my Gamelan top. I still haven't trimmed it down -- I want to to look longer and thinner. I think I will finish the quilting first, then trim it down. That may give me a better idea how it will look in the end. I am planning to use some ugly backing fabric that I will never use in another quilt. Since it is a wallhanging, it won't show!

I have not

2007-05-30T16:54:00.000+08:00

dropped of the face of the earth. I am still here, but I am a bit overwhelmed with various things going on, and the result is no quilting and no blogging. I am reading people's posts, but commenting seems a bit beyond me right now.

I did manage to finish my Gamelan top (wall hangings are so fast!), but I am going to change the proportions a bit to fit the space I will use it in. I hope to have pictures in the next several days, but in absence of those, I thought I would share this:

If all else fails, immortality can always be assured by spectacular error.
John Kenneth Galbraith
US (Canadian-born) administrator & economist (1908 - 2006)

It gave me a laugh.

WIP Gamelan Quilt

2007-05-16T11:15:00.000+08:00

I decided to go with the black background fabric for my Gamelan quilt because that was how it was in my head, and I had enough black left to make a few blocks without ordering anything. Here are my blocks so far:

I have pictures of the individual blocks following the above picture in my Webshots Quilt WIP album if you want to see in more detail These blocks are so much fun to make and really quite easy. I love that each block turns out so different from the others with just one fabric. The pattern in The Modern Quilt Workshop calls for only 3 blocks for a wall hanging, but i think I am going to make at least one more and make mine longer. They are just too much fun to pass up.

Other good news is that we have decided to get a sewing table made for me. That will mean my family can have the dining room table back when they want it, and I will get a set-in machine for easier quilting. DH was worried the table would be beyond the ability of carpenters here (wish I had a confused smiley here) and he was coming up with all kinds of strange solutions, but someone at About helped me find the links to pictures of how other husbands had made tables, and now he is convinced it can be done. Hurray!

Seven things

2007-05-11T15:44:00.000+08:00

Debra tagged me for the 7 things meme, and I am really enjoying learning more about all of you, so I will play along. Let me see...

1. You all already know that I travel quite a bit, so that is not new. But you may not realize that when I am not traveling all I want to do is STAY AT HOME! I don't want to do anything, go anywhere. I want nothing more than some quiet time to sew.

2. I love all things computer and gadgety. Though in truth I probably know just enough to be dangerous, I love to play with new gadgets and am usually fairly capable of sorting out computer problems.

3. I love to read, though because of living in an apartment and the high cost of books here, I now "read' mainly ebooks and audiobooks. I am a big mystery and sci fi/fantasy fan. I almost never read anything educational! Well, I guess that depends on what you consider educational. Among my latest reads was Stiff: The Curious Life of Human Cadavers by Mary Roach. It was fascinating, funny, and yes, I think educational. Aww, now no one will want to be friends with me!

4. I love to learn languages. Each language gives a new insight into a way to view the universe, bringing some things into focus that weren't obvious or important in another language. I speak English, Japanese and Chinese at native or near native level, and I understand a bit of Cantonese, French, and Spanish. My French used to be fairly good, but it has been drowned out by Chinese and Japanese.

5. Okay, you may have already figured this out from my posts, but I am not very domestic. When I was about 12 I set the oven on fire by trying to cook frozen pizza without taking off the cardboard underneath (luckily nothing else was damaged), and though I can now cook and quilt, I don't sew anything else (except for pillow cases!). No one who has known me from childhood can believe I quilt.

6. I basically don't wear skirts. I am a pants person. Though there are one or two long skirt styles I like, I have entirely given up the short, straight "business suit skirt" that is so popular for working women. When I got dressed up once for a special event and actually wore a dress, my son, then about 5 looked at me and said, "Mom, you look like a girl!"

7. Should I reveal this? When not sewing, I like to play computer games, especially role playing games like Final Fantasy. I use my son as an excuse but truth be told, even without him, if I weren't so busy I would probably play a lot more than is good for me!

Oops, forgot that I am also supposed to tag 7 people. There are lots of you I would love to get to know more, but for a start Joyce, Dorothy, Quilting Fitzy, Beth , Flippytale, Weronica, and Diana.

WIP - Log Cabin

2007-05-09T20:11:00.000+08:00

Although I feel like I have been posting right and left, I will post again today for WIP Wednesday. As I said in an earlier post, I finished my Log Cabin top, and now I am waiting to buy backing (though I could still piece the backing). Here is the design chosen by my family. The pictures aren't very good because it was a bit too big to photograph well where I had it. Ah well. By the way, that grey spot is apparently dog hair. It isn't there now. I checked.

New Beginnings

2007-05-08T10:32:00.000+08:00

Although my blog focuses on my quilting, I wanted to share a recent work-related development that will also give you a taste of Macau life. I work for a non-profit, non-governmental organization (The Badi Foundation) that promotes human resource development for social and economic development in China. One of our projects is a formal school called the School of the Nations in Macau. Yesterday we had the ground breaking ceremony for the new school facilities, which will also house my office. This is a very long awaited development, achieved through a government grant of land and other much valued support from various government departments, as well as ceaseless work by the Director of the School and other staff.

We had a formal ground breaking ceremony in the Macau style. After some songs from students and speeches, there was the actual ground breaking. Luckily they caught me (I am on the far right) before the hat slipped over my eyes.

Then there is the ceremonial cutting of the suckling pig, with incense surrounding

Finally, there are firecrackers set off to scare bad spirits from the construction site and as celebration. I don't have pictures of that, but they were the long red trails of firecrackers, and they were hung from a construction crane. For those who are interested, the picture below shows what the new school will look like (I am in the picture at the bottom of the article helping to cut the roast pig).

I may have found my inner domestic goddess

2007-05-07T22:52:00.000+08:00

Well, probably not, but I did discover pillowcases. After a search of the department stores found no acceptable pillowcases, I made my first pillowcase to go with my new spring-themed bedroom decor. Could it be? Yes, it was really quite simple. Granted, my pillowcase was so stuffed it looked like it might explode, but I could do it! I had made an item of home decor! Perhaps there was a domestic goddess lurking somewhere inside me.

Bursting with confidence and newfound domesticity, I began my second one. In my enthusiasm, I forgot to topstitch the hem of the opening on the back of the pillow, and then when stitching the pillowcase together, I discovered that I had not put the tension on my machine back to normal (I had loosened the top tension to try to zigzag stitch around the edge of the hem -- another story in itself!). Ugh. The resulting stitches were not going to hold that pillowcase together. No problem, I simply fixed the tension and stitched again on top of my first line of stitching. No one would be able to see it, right? Having done that, I realized that while my poorly stitched seam would have been easy to remove, I had now made it near impossible. No matter. I also somehow managed twist and turn the now completed pillowcase so that I could stitch down the fold that should have been a hem at the back of the pillow. Almost topstitch it anyway. The gaps wouldn't be too noticeable. I happily put my pillow into the finished product and it was about 3 inches too big! What did I do with the measurements? In the end, the large size was a good thing, because it allowed me to turn the pillowcase inside out again and simply cut off all the bad seams and start again without having to remake the top. Though the proportions of my original pillow design were lost, in the end, it turned into a pillowcase once more.

On the third pillow I was back to very carefully following the directions, and it turned out fairly well. By that time, though, I had run out of backing fabric for the pillow, so it does look a bit odd on the back...Despite all this, my husband has actually encouraged me to make more pillowcases, and to make them for the large bed pillows.

My updated spring decor is now:
The white cover on the headboard is temporary. It may someday be covered by a wholecloth quilt in either white or blue, and I may add some applique to my first pillow. Someday I may even make a set of pillows based on the ring of the single wedding ring in my Flurry of Feathers quilt. For now, my domestic goddess is tired and has gone into hiding.

First pillow. Imagine it with some flowers appliqued there like in my Butterfly Trails quilt

My second pillow

Look what I got!

2007-05-06T06:53:00.000+08:00

Debra and I traded fabric at the Trader's Village -- I had some silks that I would probably never use, and in return I got these beautiful batiks. They are beautiful! Now I have to come up with a quilt to use them in.

On other fronts, I think I am leaning toward using the black background fabric in the Gamelan quilt. Although I think the other fabrics would work, the quilt in my head has a black background. I will probably go with Kona Black or similar solid black because of price, but I am tempted by black and black tonals. And, when I am ordering the black fabric, I can also order some variegated thread, some dissolving thread, and maybe even a wide quilt backing for my Log Cabin. I have never used a wide backing before, and it sounds nice! Although I could wait until I am in the US to get the basic black and white fabrics I need, it seems rather a waste to fill up my suitcase with plain fabrics when I could be filling it with so many other quilty things.

It's spring, maybe even summer

2007-05-04T08:36:00.000+08:00

It is really warm here now, so in honor of Spring, or Summer, I took the brown store-bought quilt off the bed in our room and replaced it with A Flurry of Feathers, which turned out to be a rather large quilt. It doesn't cover the pillows on the king-size bed, and I had thought of making a pillow topper, but I think it is okay without one. I rather like the way it looks except for a few details...First, the pillows/headstand/headboard (what is that thing called?) behind the bed look really grungy next to that nice white quilt, and second, those small pillows need to be changed to a lighter color! Then there is the mess on my husband's side of the bed...although mine isn't too much better!

WIP..Thursday?

2007-05-03T16:52:00.000+08:00

Somehow Wednesday went right by, and Thursday had almost passed before I realized I had missed WIP Wednesday. I was so tired from my trip that I was in no state to cut or sew anything until today, but I promised today to my son, so not much has gotten done sewing wise. I have added the first borders to my log cabin, but no photos yet. Instead, I would like some advice for my next quilt.

I have been wanting to do a quilt based on the Gamelan pattern in The Modern Quilt Workshop, and I found a great fabric to use for the circles. My original idea had been to do the background in black so that it would be an elegant fall-like quilt. However, I have somehow managed to go through the 10 yards of Kona Black I bought in December (and almost all the Kona Snow as well!). I could order more and wait for it to arrive, but that seems rather silly as I will be in the US in about 2 months. I do probably need to buy some to have on hand, though.

I also have these two fabrics in my stash that I could use. I am a bit worried the end result would look too Christmasy, plus the quilting wouldn't show up as well. What do you think?

More on Mongolia

2007-05-01T07:46:00.000+08:00

I am back in Macau, recovering from a wonderful and productive trip. Leaving Mongolia proved much more difficult than I had expected. First, the Mongolian government declared the day I was leaving a "no car" day to show their concern for the environment. That meant I had walk with my suitcase to an area outside the "no drive zone" to be able to get a car to the airport. That limited the time I could spend in Ulaan Baator in the morning. I was able to join a devotional meeting among the Baha'is in Ulaan Baator, but then had to run to the airport.

I arrived to find that because there were heavy winds, my flight was delayed until 7:30 at night. Apparently, Air China pilots are known for their fear of Mongolian winds, and even when local flights take off, Chinese pilots turn back to Beijing rather than facing the winds on landing. Flights are almost always delayed! So I headed back to join a Baha'i community meeting and the celebration of Ridvan, a holy day commemorating the beginning of the Baha'i Faith. It was great to get to share time with all the friends there and to see how creative and dedicated they are. My flight was successively delayed to 9:30, then 11, then 11:30. In the end we didn't take off until after midnight, and it was 3:30 in the morning by the time I made it to my friend's house in Beijing. I had a morning flight to Macau, so what was going to be half a day with friends in Beijing ended up being spent in Mongolia. I was thrilled to be able to spend more time there, but I am tired today!

I actually spent most of my time in Mongolia meeting with friends, so all I have are two pictures taken of the streets where I was meeting. You can see that most of the building are not very tall, and it has quite an open feeling. There are lots of interesting buildings and statues, but I didn't get pictures of any of them! The buildings are clearly built for the cold weather of the long Mongolian winters. They all have thick double doors at the entry way, and the apartments have two sets of windows separated by about 8 inches. The layer of air between the two sets of windows is good insulation.

Since I am quite pathetic and did not manage to get photos of this incredible country, I have decided to share some from other people that show what Mongolia is like.
In the outer parts of the city, you will see ger, the traditional Mongolian housing. These sections of the city are usually the poorer parts of the city and you may see lots of small fenced areas, each with a ger. This picture by yuki_tsatraral shows a traditional ger in the middle of the city.

This is quite close to what things looked like outside the city, although with less snow. This trip I didn't actually get to spend time with herders, but this is such a wonderful shot, i wanted to share it.

by brog740: Terelj National Park, Mongolia">

Although when summer comes all will be green, at this point everything is still quite brown. This photo by Pokrandt of Inner Mongolia is what much of the countryside in Mongolia looks like. I don't know the current percentage of roads that are paved, but it is not too high. When you visit the herder families, often you end up driving off road. The driver identifies hills and other natural land marks and suddenly heads off the road and toward the mountains. Then you basically keep asking people you meet where a particular family is, until you find them.

Mongolia is really one of my favorite countries. Because I have always gone for work, I haven't ever been able to really explore it, so now I am thinking that next year I should get my family to go with me for a real family vacation. If any of you have a chance to go, you really should take it. It is well worth the trip!

Greetings from Mongolia!

2007-04-28T22:44:00.000+08:00

This will have to be a short post since it is already late and I will have a full day tomorrow, but I am now in Mongolia and wanted to say hi. It has been a wonderful trip. This is my third trip to Mongolia, the last one being 7 years ago. Both previous visits have been in winter when it was very cold by my standards (though still mild by Mongolian standards), so I came prepared with sweaters and a down coat, but instead it is really warm and comfortable.

It is so wonderful to see old friends and see the development of the country. I have been here consulting with a development agency that I serve on the advisory board of (The Mongolian Development Center), and also for the Baha'i National Convention. When I arrived I expected to be met at the airport by one or two old friends that I haven't seen in some time, but instead I was welcomed by a whole group of people in the traditional Mongolian way -- with a bowl of milk resting on beautiful scarf (one drinks from the bowl and passes it one by one to each member of the group). I am hoping to get some pictures from my friends. Thank God I was not too badly dressed!

I hope to post a bit more about Mongolia in the next several days. It is really a lovely country and the people are incredibly warm and welcoming. Since I had better get to bed or suffer the consequences tomorrow, I will just share a few pictures. Sorry they are not better and do not show more of the country!! I have no pictures from my meetings with the Mongolian Development Center, and I do not yet have one of the full convention participants. The full picture would show much more of the traditional dress and the diversity of the community. Instead the first picture is of the new National Assembly and the Auxiliary Board members. The National Assembly is the governing body of the Baha'i community. It has nine members who are elected annually. The Auxiliary Board is an appointed body that helps facilitate learning, encourages unity, and assists the community to devise plans and bring them to fruition. I am seated in the front row wearing the pink jacket.

The next picture is just the Auxiliary Board members, and the final picture is of one of the Baha'is attending the convention. His traditional outfit was just gorgeous and I wish that I had gotten a better picture.

It's finished!

2007-04-22T10:20:00.000+08:00

One more quilt done this year! I finished up my "red monster" quilt -- a red version of the Out of the Box quilt based on a pattern from The Modern Quilt Workshop. All it needs now is clipping of all the lose threads and a wash (these two steps are right up there with basting in my least favorite activities). Oh yes, and it really needs a better name. It is only a red monster because it sat as a UFO for about 2 years after I lost enthusiasm for hand quilting it. It is relatively small so it is not a "monster" in size. Although I would have done the background differently now, I think I now like it again, and I will probably give it either to my brother's family or to a girlfriend who I will see this summer. All suggestions for names will be gratefully considered!

Although the parallel lines in the body of the quilt were terrible to quilt (and were not parallel either!), the triangles in the border were more enjoyable. I used the background squares to practice different motifs and filler designs I want to learn, so that made them fun.

I used the Ricky Tim piped binding method again, and this time all the corners turned out better. They are far from the way his look, but I think they are as good as my miters using other methods. I still find I am not staying right in the ditch all the time, but again, it is much better than previous attempts at machine stitching the binding! I wander into the pipping, but because the thread color matches the piping, it isn't too visible.

It's not my best work, but

2007-04-19T18:31:00.000+08:00

Finished is better than perfect! I finished up the quilting on my red monster (my red Out of the Box) quilt top. I ended up quilting triangles filled with straight lines in various directions in the borders, and free motion quilting in the remaining boxes. I used the boxes as an opportunity to practice some free motion motifs, which made them quite enjoyable. Even in the border, somehow just changing directions to fill the triangles made the quilting more enjoyable than the endless straight lines in the body of the quilt. I rather like the quilt again now. There is one place where I really messed up the design in the border, and I am still thinking of whether I should fix it. If the quilt were for my own use, I would leave it, but I am thinking of giving it to a friend's child when I visit the US this summer. It is certainly not my best quilting, but my friend is not a quilter and probably will not really notice...still, I don't like to give someone something that I am not that happy with.

Now all that is left is the binding. I think I will use the Ricky Tim piped binding again to practice it. Last time I had a bit of difficulty with the corners. I will post pictures when it is all done. I have been extremely busy this week, but I should have time to quilt on Sunday. On Monday I leave for Beijing, and then go to Ulan Baatar (Mongolia). I am looking forward to the trip, but I doubt there will do anything quilt related next week. Hopefully I will get some pictures of Mongolia!

Something from China

2007-04-15T11:29:00.000+08:00

While I was at the conference the other week, I wore an outfit I bought in China that I think you all would appreciate. As a project for social and economic development, a friend of mine's wife buys old embroidery and traditional items from some of the minority areas in SE China (Guangxi and Guizhou primarily) and remakes them into clothing. They have some really beautiful things.

Log Cabin Update

2007-04-11T22:55:00.000+08:00

Since it was a bit difficult to envision my log cabin in different layouts without the black fabric, I began playing with layouts in EQ. I love EQ! Here are some of my favorites. I haven't decided on which one yet, though.

1. Original Layout. I still like something about it.

2. I don't like how much black I am ending up with at the top and bottom, but I really like the center of the layout.3. Barn raising with a border to give a better size. This might be the easiest to quilt.
4. I really like this layout, but I am not sure how I would quilt the large expanses of black.
5. A bit of a variation, with the border all around.
I must have 10-15 other layouts that I tried and just did not like as much as these. I may end up with another 20 before I'm ready to finalize!

WIP 4/11/07

2007-04-11T19:37:00.000+08:00

I have been very busy with work, so I haven't gotten much chance to quilt. When I have the time, I have basically been forcing myself to finish up quilting on my red monster quilt. I finished the parallel lines in the main body of the quilt and the quilting around most of the patches, but I still have the borders to do. My parallel lines are not parallel, and I will never do parallel lines over so much of a quilt again. At some point I had decided to extend the parallel lines into the borders, but then, because they were not parallel, I decided to switch directions on my parallel lines at "random" places (actually places where it would soon become abundantly clear the lines were not parallel). That would make the border look like triangles filled with parallel lines. At this point, I am so sick of parallel lines that what I would really like to do is just finish up the border using some relatively large border motif. However, as you can see from this photo, I have this big chunk of border quilted with parallel lines, and the thought of taking them out is not too attractive either. Hmmm.

Oh yes, in case you are wondering, all those threads are there because this quilt was originally going to be hand quilted. Those days are over, I think.

Layout help

2007-04-08T13:18:00.000+08:00

Now that my Single Wedding Ring is done (remember, help me with names!), I have been playing a bit with my Log Cabin to try to come up with a layout. Actually, mainly I have been trying to find a solution to some problems with my laptop, which may have a virus that is not being detected. When not doing that, I have been playing with my log cabin blocks. Here are some of the possibilities. I am aiming for a quilt that is at least 70" wide, but several of the layouts would finish naturally at 60". My family likes ample quilt for their feet! Blank places would be filled with black squares or black borders. Please excuse the family debris in the photo, LOL.

#1, My original plan:#2. This is fun, and may be more interesting to quilt, but I might have to add an extra border at the top and bottom to get a usable length.

#3. Barn raising layout with color at the center. Block blocks would fill in the corners, and a wide block border all around.
$4. The playstation cord is such an attractive addition. Additional block border all around.
#5. Black to fill in the first border, and possibly an additional black border at the top and border to make up the length.

Finished!

2007-04-07T16:47:00.000+08:00

My Single Wedding Ring is finished! You may all be fairly sick of seeing it as I have posted so many pictures as it was in process, but it now has binding. I tried out the piped binding method on the Ricky Tim DVD, and I am pretty pleased with the results. I like the touch of color the piping brings, and it gives me something to do with 1" strips leftover from various projects.

As with any method it will take some practice to really perfect it, but it is certainly an improvement on my previous attempts at machine binding! My previous quilts had stitching wandering in and out of the ditch on the front, and on the back they went from the quilt back to the binding, wandered back on the quilt top. This time, although I am not exactly in the ditch everywhere, you can't really tell unless you are looking pretty closely because the thread just blends in with the piping. On the back I have a nice even line of stitching running just parallel to the binding everywhere except at some of the corners where my miters did not come quite far enough over the line of stitching. The mitering of the corners was definitely the hardest part of this method. I find it fairly easy when just stitching the continuous binding and mitering as I go.

Now I need a name. I am thinking of something like "A flurry of feathers" or "feathered frenzy". All suggestions are welcome. Ah. Now that I write this, I realize I forgot about a label for this quilt. I will either quilt the name and date into the border or into a somewhere, or add a label by hand.

I'm back!

2007-04-04T07:19:00.000+08:00

I spent last week in Thailand, participating in a fantastic conference with participants from all over SE Asia and East Asia. It was wonderful to meet such dedicated and insightful people and to hear the stories of how they have worked for the advancement of their communities. The conference was really busy, so I did not manage any quilting this week until getting back to Macau, despite bringing some hand piecing along.

Yesterday, I was able to finish the last few blocks for my Log Cabin. I am not sure about the layout to use, though. I had originally planned lay them out so that all the bright halves would face in the same direction, but then I thought about using a barn raising layout, which may end up giving more interesting options for quilting. If I do that, I either have to make another row of blocks, or take away 4 blocks. I am out of red scraps for more blocks, though, and without the blocks the quilt might be a bit short. Here is the original layout. It would have wide black borders for fancier quilting. The blocks are just laid out randomly. Might need a bit of adjustment.

I also managed to pick up my two new presser feet for the Ricky Tim binding. I can't wait to try it out.

WIP Wednesday 3/28

2007-03-28T21:51:00.000+08:00

Now that I have my sewing machine back, I have been working on a quick project in addition to my Rattlesnake quilt. I have done three blue and white quilts recently, and I was really rather tired of blue and white, so I decided to work on something easy to piece that was not blue and white!

Remember all those red/orange strips left over from the red Rattlesnake quilt? I decided to use them up in a red and black log cabin. It is actually my first "traditional" log cabin. I made one Sierra Log Cabin from Judy Martin's books, the one with flying geese in the logs. I made that before I really understood about the 1/4" seam and before I had any clue as how to work with flying geese triangles, so as my quilts go, the results are... amusing. I doubt that there are two flying geese in any block that are the same size.

The traditional log cabins are much easier! I got very excited about churning out blocks and managed to finish at least 8 and to get 6-8 almost done before I left for Thailand. That is where I am now, so unfortunately, I can't post any pictures of the log cabin blocks until I get home. Instead, here is my first log cabin. DS chose the fabrics and the pattern.
One more piece of good news --the day before I left for Thailand, I also got a call saying the presser feet I ordered have arrived, so when I get back home, I will head over to Hong Kong to pick them up. That means my Single Wedding Ring may soon be bound.

Finished!

2007-03-25T07:55:00.000+08:00

I found a good fabric for the binding of the jacket in my stash, so last night I finished my McTavished Jacket. What a fun and and easy project. I think next time I will do one with freehand feathers, but I will have to start with a bigger sweatshirt since this one won't close now. Here is the finished product.

It's back!

2007-03-24T13:22:00.000+08:00

My sewing machine is back! I got it back Thursday after a long wait, and it has been given a clean bill of health. Not only that, but I have the whole day today for quilting. Unfortunately, the presser feet I ordered so that I could do the border on the Single Wedding Ring quilt are not yet in, so that one is not yet finished. To celebrate the return of my beloved sewing machine, instead, inspired by the quilters on this ring who also sew, I made my first item of clothing.

Okay, made is probably a bit of an over- statement. I did, however, quilt an item of clothing. I have Karen McTavish's book and DVD on McTavishing, and in it there are a couple of pictures of McTavished sweatshirt jackets. I bought a cheap sweatshirt after seeing them, and yesterday I cut it apart and began McTavishing it using a variegated thread I had on hand. Once I had the pieces McTavished, I thought I was in real trouble because I had no idea how to put it back together again, but I discovered the overlock stitch on my sewing machine and here is the result.

It still needs binding, obviously, but I am amazed to see that I was in fact able to put it back together and I can actually wear it. I used up all the lining fabric, so now I have to figure out what to use to bind it. But, overall, I am quite pleased with my effort! And yes, it took only a few hours last night and half a day today.

Since my sewing machine isn't here

2007-03-18T15:20:00.000+08:00

I have been working a bit on two quilt projects. First, I have done a bit on my hand piecing project. It was supposed to be a Drunkard's Path done in fairly random fabric combinations. I don't have Drunkard's Path templates, so I found one in a book I have, made the template and began cutting. It was only after I had cut my fabrics that I realized the pattern was not a standard drunkard's path but a variation designed to be pieced with sashing running through the circles (the XOXO pattern in the Modern Quilt workshop). This means that the edges of the pie-shaped piece are all bias and the outside part is quite narrow and difficult to cut accurately. I also learned how not to make templates doing this. Thin slippery plastic is not the best choice of template material! We have to learn somehow!

The other thing I have been doing is beginning to design a whole cloth quilt. I have always wanted to do one, and if I can't use my machine, at least I can mark some fabric for a whole cloth.

Aside from the quilt-related things, I have been cleaning my closet, or at least beginning to. I am taking out clothes that I don't wear any more, and looking for things that can either be given away or cut up to make quilts. I also added some things to the Trader's Village. They are silks I bought locally that I don't think I will ever use. Check it out!

A Trip Through History

2007-03-18T08:42:00.000+08:00

Since my sewing machine is still in Hong Kong, I have not been doing much quilting. I did get out my hand piecing project, and did a few partial blocks. Unfortunately, I made my own templates with very thin and slippery plastic so my cutting is not particularly accurate. We will have to see how it turns out. I will try to get some pictures this week.

Last night DS had a school play, Dig It. The story is that Lucy (early hominid) takes some kids through history. It was a riot.
The tall skeleton is mine. :)

Civilizations of Mesopotamia

On to Egypt.
Confucius brings everyone to see the civilizations of Asia

Greece is the Way

Toga Party!Visions of the Future

Oh dear, no WIP For me

2007-03-15T19:02:00.000+08:00

I finished the quilting on my Single Wedding Ring on Sunday. I extended the feathers into the border, and I am very happy how it turned out. To use the Ricky Tims binding method, I need to purchase two new presser feet, and since the only Bernina dealer is in Hong Kong, I decided to bring my machine for an annual tune-up, get the feet, and pick up the #3 pearl cotton you need for the method.

Since DS was sick Monday, I had to put it off until Tuesday. When I got there (having lugged the quite heavy machine from taxi to boat, through 2 sets of customs and immigration, and onto another taxi), I learned that the technician is sick, has a giant backlog, and I probably won't be able to get my sewing machine back for a week. They also didn't have the two presser feet I needed in stock, so that may take a week to two weeks as well. I did pick up the new 1/4" foot with the seam guide and some bobbins. So it looks like no machine sewing will go on in my house for at least a week, and my Single Wedding Ring quilt may take longer to finish than I had thought. I do have a hand sewing project that I usually only work on when I am traveling, so I may need to work on that. At least when I get the presser feet, that will be two more in the box that will have some idea how to use.

I am not kidding about the presser feet. I did not get any lessons with my machine, and I am quite domestically challenged. I am sure that my sewing machine can do many amazing and wonderful things, just not while I am sitting at it. Lately, DH seems to be developing expectations that I will do something with it other than make quilts. A few weeks ago, he asked if my sewing machine could sew on buttons, and this week he asked me to make a quilt cover for a strangely shaped pillow that we got at Ikea. Honestly, he even used the word quilt to entice me to try to make it. What to do, what to do?

As you can see, the pillow has a connector to a zippered pocket that has a weight in it so you can hang it over the back of the chair and it won't fall off.

Some Good Things

2007-03-10T20:10:00.000+08:00

I have lots of good news to report tonight. First, I have finished quilting the center section of my Single Wedding Ring quilt, and am now working on the border. 1 1/2 sides are not quilted, so with any luck at all, I should be able to finish it up tomorrow. Then on Monday or Tuesday, I will go to Hong Kong to the Bernina dealer to pick up some presser feet. I am going to try Ricky Tims' binding method on this quilt.

Next, I successfully extended my wireless network by adding an access point, so now I can browse the web easily from my bedroom. Instead of the low quality connection I had, it now reads "very good" signal strength. Sometimes it even reads excellent. I was continually getting dropped connections in my bedroom, so that should now be fixed. Of course, the real question is whether having reliable Internet access from my bedroom is a good thing. Do I really need more time on the Internet? Probably not, LOL.

Another thing I am very excited about is that I will be able to attend a seminar with Diane Gaudynski when I go to the States this summer. I am so excited! For those of you not familiar with her, her website is here.

I have never been to a quilting class, and what a way to start! I found her site by accident one time, loved her quilts, and wrote her a question about batting and quilt stiffness. She was kind enough to answer. I am beginning to plan my trip to the US this summer, and it occurred to me that I could find a quilt show or workshop and take some classes. When I checked her website, it turned out she was going to be giving a seminar not more than a half hour from my brother's house. The shop has accepted me to the class and has agreed to let me use one of their sewing machines since I will not be dragging mine all that way!

Since I have no quilting pictures to share, here is one of our dog. She feels the need to check out any stuffed animals brought into the house. Here she has jumped up to the kitchen peninsula to find a present DS bought for me. I should have been discouraging this, but it was so funny I had to get a picture.

WIP Wednesday 3/7

2007-03-07T17:49:00.000+08:00

I have been working away on my Single Wedding Ring quilt. Since I am now working at home, I have been rewarding myself for completing work related tasks by letting myself quilt a block. I now have about 3/4 of the central portion done. I am a little reluctant to keep posting pictures because there will be nothing left to show when the quilt is done, but it is WIP Wednesday.

Here is what I have been doing. I think my feathers have loosened up a bit in the few days of practice, so they are a little more curvy. I love feathers!

In the pieced blocks I have just been doing continuous curves, but I am not sure whether to continue that in the center of the block or to put in a motif of some sort. I like the way the continuous curves create a circular image around the center of the block, and it would be nice to continue that feeling. Any suggestions?

I am also wondering about what to do in the border. I could definitely continue the Victorian feathers throughout the border, or I could switch to something different, like a geometric motif. In Quilting Makes the Quilt, one version of this quilt has feathered wreaths in the plain blocks and is quilted with a very sharp geometric motif in the border-- you divide the border into triangles, and do parallel lines in the triangles. I can't explain it well, but it looks great. It would be pretty boring quilting, though. Again, suggestions are welcome.

Quilting Again!

2007-03-03T16:43:00.000+08:00

My very busy month is over, and I am quilting again. Hurray! My meetings finished yesterday, but I was too exhausted to do anything. Today I had the house to myself for much of the day. I got my Single Wedding Ring basted and I started quilting the basic grid to stabilize it. I finished that, and even got to quilt a few feathers. They went pretty well, and I am happy to be back quilting again.

Book Meme

2007-03-02T07:36:00.000+08:00

I haven't usually done memes, but I thought this one from Diana was interesting.

Look at the list of books below:
* Bold the ones you’ve read
* Italicize the ones you want to read
* Leave blank the ones that you aren’t interested in.
* If you are reading this, tag, you’re it!

1. The DaVinci Code (Dan Brown)
2. Pride and Prejudice (Jane Austen)*
3. To Kill A Mockingbird (Harper Lee)*
4. Gone With The Wind (Margaret Mitchell)
5. The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King* (Tolkien) This is a favorite series of mine, and I reread it periodically
6. The Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring* (Tolkien)
7. The Lord of the Rings: Two Towers* (Tolkien)
8. Anne of Green Gables (L.M. Montgomery)
9.Outlander (Diana Gabaldon) My mom gave it to me, but I haven't gotten around to reading it yet.
10. A Fine Balance(Rohinton Mistry)
11. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire* (Rowling) This is a fun series. It is not as good as Lord of the Rings, but it is really enjoyable and Rowling creates a believable and enticing world.
12. Angels and Demons (Dan Brown)
13. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix* (Rowling)
14. A Prayer for Owen Meany (John Irving)
15. Memoirs of a Geisha (Arthur Golden)
16. Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone* (Rowling)
17. Fall on Your Knees (Ann-Marie MacDonald)
18. The Stand (Stephen King)
19. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban* (Rowling)
20. Jane Eyre (Charlotte Bronte)*
21. The Hobbit (Tolkien)* see Tolkien above
22. The Catcher in the Rye (J.D. Salinger)
23. Little Women (Louisa May Alcott)
24. The Lovely Bones (Alice Sebold)
25. Life of Pi (Yann Martel)
26. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy* (Douglas Adams) Great fun.
27. Wuthering Heights (Emily Bronte)
28. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (C. S. Lewis)*
29. East of Eden (John Steinbeck)
30. Tuesdays with Morrie (Mitch Albom)
31. Dune (Frank Herbert)
32. The Notebook (Nicholas Sparks)
33. Atlas Shrugged (Ayn Rand)
34. 1984 (Orwell)
35. The Mists of Avalon (Marion Zimmer Bradley)
36. The Pillars of the Earth (Ken Follett)
37. The Power of One (Bryce Courtenay)
38. I Know This Much is True (Wally Lamb)
39. The Red Tent (Anita Diamant)
40. The Alchemist (Paulo Coelho)
41. The Clan of the Cave Bear (Jean M. Auel) I started on this one but the basic premise annoyed me so much I never got far.
42. The Kite Runner (Khaled Hosseini)
43. Confessions of a Shopaholic (Sophie Kinsella)
44. The Five People You Meet In Heaven (Mitch Albom)
45. The Bible
46. Anna Karenina (Tolstoy)
47. The Count of Monte Cristo (Alexandre Dumas)
48. Angela’s Ashes (Frank McCourt)
49. The Grapes of Wrath (John Steinbeck)
50. She’s Come Undone (Wally Lamb)
51. The Poisonwood Bible (Barbara Kingsolver)
52. A Tale of Two Cities (Dickens)*
53. Ender’s Game* (Orson Scott Card) Fantastic book with an interesting twist.
54. Great Expectations (Dickens)*
55. The Great Gatsby (Fitzgerald)
56. The Stone Angel (Margaret Laurence)
57. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets* (Rowling)
58. The Thorn Birds (Colleen McCullough)
59. The Handmaid’s Tale (Margaret Atwood)
60. The Time Traveller’s Wife (Audrew Niffenegger)
61. Crime and Punishment (Fyodor Dostoyevsky)
62. The Fountainhead (Ayn Rand)
63. War and Peace (Tolstoy)
64. Interview With The Vampire (Anne Rice) I liked this series at the beginning but it got to be too much.
65. Fifth Business (Robertson Davis)
66. One Hundred Years Of Solitude (Gabriel Garcia Marquez)
67. The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants (Ann Brashares)
68. Catch-22 (Joseph Heller)
69. Les Miserables (Hugo)
70. The Little Prince (Antoine de Saint-Exupery)
71. Bridget Jones’ Diary (Fielding)
72. Love in the Time of Cholera (Marquez)
73. Shogun (James Clavell) A lot of inaccuracies. My husband, who is Japanese, hated it.
74. The English Patient (Michael Ondaatje)
75. The Secret Garden (Frances Hodgson Burnett)*
76. The Summer Tree (Guy Gavriel Kay)
77. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (Betty Smith)
78. The World According to Garp (John Irving)
79. The Diviners (Margaret Laurence)
80. Charlotte's Web (E.B. White)* A classic
81. Not Wanted On The Voyage (Timothy Findley)
82. Of Mice And Men (Steinbeck)
83. Rebecca (Daphne DuMaurier)
84. Wizard’s First Rule (Terry Goodkind) Might re-read it, but I am not sure. I liked the series at the beginning, but got tired of it as it went on.
85. Emma (Jane Austen)
86. Watership Down(Richard Adams)
87. Brave New World (Aldous Huxley)
88. The Stone Diaries (Carol Shields)
89. Blindness (Jose Saramago)
90. Kane and Abel (Jeffrey Archer)
91. In The Skin Of A Lion (Ondaatje)
92. Lord of the Flies (Golding) I hated this book. Had to read it in high school
93. The Good Earth (Pearl S. Buck)
94. The Secret Life of Bees (Sue Monk Kidd)
95. The Bourne Identity (Robert Ludlum)
96. The Outsiders (S.E. Hinton)
97. White Oleander (Janet Fitch)
98. A Woman of Substance (Barbara Taylor Bradford)
99. The Celestine Prophecy (James Redfield)
100. Ulysses (James Joyce)

Looking at this, I have read a lot of classics (mostly in high school, I think!) and lots of Fantasy/SF. But of course, I knew that! I also read a lot of mysteries. For the most part, I read for escape. I have never heard of some of these books, and others are on my "someday" list. I wonder how the list was originally put together.

WIP Wednesday: Top Finished

2007-02-28T21:45:00.000+08:00

So far this week has still been slow, and it will continue to be slow for quilting until next week when things quiet down a bit at work. I did manage to finish my Single Wedding Ring quilt top, though. I mitered the corners -- my first attempt at mitering borders. Sewing on the first borders and mitering the first corner took me about an hour, but the second went faster. Here is the result of my labor.

I actually finished this top a few days ago, and I was planning to post about how mitering was easier than I thought it would be -- three of my four miters have the points matching exactly where they should be. However, in the meantime, I have ironed the top and laid it out on the bed to take a picture, and lo and behold, it is not very flat at all! Of course, part of the problem is that I haven't straightened it too well, but even on the floor, it is not as flat as it should be. The problem isn't only in the borders, but my mitering probably did not help. The borders have some serious puffs. It is very disappointing. My second insight: this is one gigantic quilt! It covers the entire top of my king size bed! It is going to be quite the experience to quilt this on my home sewing machine.

The other thing I have worked on in the last week (unsuccessfully!) is extending my home computer network. I have a router with wireless, but the master bedroom signal is unreliable, so I want to add another access point. I bought a router/access point, but although I can get it set up as a router, it is not working as an access point! Since I am still in meetings, I don't have time to get it sorted out. Hopefully I will end up with reliable wireless access sometime soon.

A Slow Week

2007-02-25T08:36:00.000+08:00

I have been so busy with work this week that I have not managed to get much quilting done at all. I managed to miter two of the corners on my Single Wedding Ring quilt. It was my first time mitering corners, and I think they turned out okay. I was going to take a picture, but I realize they need to be pressed first. Instead I will show what I have been doing when I haven't been quilting -- doodling! I intend to use freehand Victorian feathers on this quilt, so I have been practicing them on every available surface. Here are some of the results. All the pages are filled on both sides.

At this point, I think I am ready to start using them on my quilt. At least by the end of this quilt, I should be pretty comfortable with them!

Not Today

2007-02-20T18:00:00.000+08:00

I had every intention of finishing the center portion of my single wedding ring quilt today, but it does not look like it is going to happen. I have put a good amount of time into quilting today, but I ended up doing more ripping out than I had expected. When you have to join up two pieced blocks, there are a lot of HSTs coming together, and it did not always go smoothly. I also could never quite figure out how to press the blocks so the seams would interlock. I always ended up with some I needed to flip, and that made it hard to keep things accurate when putting everything together. For one pair of blocks, I first just did a really inadequate job of sewing them together and decided to rip it out. I am not usually too fussy, but this would not have passed the "riding on horseback at 50 yards" test. Then I redid it, and was happy to see that I had hit almost all the points in the right spots, only to find that I had sewed right side to wrong side...on the third try I finally got it right. But I had too many of those kinds of errors, and now the quilt is only partially sewn together and I am exhausted. I still have some time tomorrow morning, but after that I will probably have almost no time to sew for about 2 weeks because of meetings and people staying at my house. Maybe I will try again later tonight.

Sally thought I was spending entirely too much time at my sewing machine, too. She decided to take up this position to see if she could get me to change my mind. She kept leaning her head against the foot pedal. I would move it, and she would move just a bit closer. Silly dog, that won't stop me!

What are you looking at? I'm not doing anything!

Almost there!

2007-02-19T19:37:00.000+08:00

Only two more pieced blocks left to do on my single wedding ring quilt. I already have all the plain blocks cut, so I may even have the center portion (less borders) piece by Wednesday! I wonder if I have jinxed myself by saying that? But I really love how quickly quilts with alternate plain blocks go together.

Happy Chinese New Year!

2007-02-18T11:29:00.000+08:00

It is a big time for celebrations here. Last night we had fireworks, and there will be more fireworks and firecrackers for the next 3 days. Here are some pictures from last night.

Now what to do with them?

2007-02-16T12:41:00.000+08:00

I must admit that I am not the world's most accurate fabric cutter. Most of the time I design my quilts on my own, and I often cut in batches as needed so I don't feel compelled to figure out exactly how many 3" strips I need before I begin piecing. When I do get going cutting strips, I sometimes get carried away, leading to a shortage of fabric later in the process when I need a different size strip or realize that the fabric I have almost used up is exactly the right one for the border. I have tried recently to be a bit more careful recently, especially where border fabrics are concerned, but the impact has not been obvious unless I was working from a pattern in a book.

I originally intended to use blue and orange in all the blocks in my Rattlesnake quilt. Since Karen K. Stone's patterns do not give very precise cutting directions, I happily cut bunches of orange and blue strips from all the fabrics I thought might be fun to put in the quilt. At some point, however, I got the idea of having blue on blue blocks in the outer part of the quilt, blue and orange/red at the next "ring" of blocks, and orange and yellow blocks at the center so that there would be some luminosity. It looks wonderful in EQ, although I am not sure it will work quite as well using my real blocks. I just finished piecing all the yellow and orange/red blocks and all the blue/orange blocks, and I see that I am left with this:
What in the world am I going to do with all these orange and red strips? I do have a red and yellow lender/ender quilt that some could be used for,but this is a lot of strips! A new level of achievement even for me in the over-cutting department. Also, my blues seem to be mostly blue-greens and rather light strips. This may call for some creative quilting in my next quilts!

WIP Wednesday 2/15

2007-02-15T07:00:00.000+08:00

I got confused about the day of the week and almost forgot to post this! It is still Wednesday somewhere, so here is my update.

As I was traveling, I didn't get much quilting done this week, but I did manage to get the center portions of about 4 rattlesnake blocks done. That brings my Rattlesnake quilt to 4 complete blocks and an additional 15 centers. Unfortunately it will need 42 blocks so it will not be done any time soon.

I also got to try out my quick quarter tool for making half square triangles for my Single Wedding Ring quilt. It is wonderful! I can't believe how much faster the whole process went. Trimming the HSTs is still the slowest part of making the block, but now instead of a pile of yet-to-be-trimmed HSTs, I have some completed blocks. That brings me to 12 finished blocks. I only need 20 pieced blocks for the quilt, so it won't be long until this one is done.

Interesting Sign

2007-02-14T10:06:00.000+08:00

While DH was traveling in China recently, he came across this sign:

I'm back!

2007-02-12T19:11:00.001+08:00

Okay, you probably didn't realize I was gone, but I have been traveling for the last few days. It was a very busy but good trip to Tokyo. I didn't get to go to any quilt shops, but I did make it to one fabric and crafts store. This time my focus was thread. I got some silk thread and some some mettler threads, and a few fat quarters that I couldn't resist. Here are my purchases. The thread is all blue and white because the next quilt I am likely to finish is also blue and white. I need maroon thread for my rattlesnake quilt, but unfortunately I didn't bring a fabric sample, so I was afraid to buy any thread for that quilt.

WIP Wednesday

2007-02-07T15:08:00.000+08:00

Since I just finished my Butterfly Trails quilt, I don't really have much to show for today's WIP Wednesday. Here, then, is the beginnings of my Rattlesnake quilt, based on the pattern in Karen K. Stone's book. Lots of blue and orange/red strips waiting to be sewn into blocks. I love her patterns, and I hope to make a few, but this one is taking a long time. I find I can't do too many at once or I lose concentration and start making mistakes. Now that I have finished Butterfly Trails, I think I will work on this one for a while.

By the way, the strips are hanging on the door to my computer cabinet, which used to close to hide the mess in my "office". I used to hang my strips on the Nordic Track, but now that it is being used, my workspace is suffering the indignity of regular expose. I guess that is a good thing though, LOL.

Oops. But it's done!

2007-02-06T06:58:00.000+08:00

I finished up my Butterfly Trails quilt! I was so eager to get it finished that I decided to do the binding by machine, which was probably a mistake on this quilt. The binding is scrappy, so I had a hard time finding thread that would blend in on all the fabrics, and the backing is light, so if I was off at all, it showed on the back. I need much more practice on machine binding!

I was up fairly late putting the binding on, so I was tired when went to put pictures of the quilt up. I had some computer glitches while doing this, and when I tried to fix the problem, I accidentally deleted my entire webshots folder of completed quilts! I put the pictures I had on this computer up, but there are still a lot of gaps! If I have time I will get the rest back up over the next day or two.

All that said, here is my completed Butterfly Trails. I still needs washing and a trim of stray threads (why do they always show up so clearly on photos, but not in person?). There are lots of detailed pictures in my Finished Quilts webshots folder starting here if you are interested.

lorimn95

lorimn95

Shhhh!

2007-02-05T16:29:00.000+08:00

Don't tell DH. I was trimming up my quilt and forgot exactly where my cutting mat ended, cutting an inch or two on the table. Luckily, it was our granite kitchen peninsula, not our wooden floor or wooden dining room table! It did a lot more damage to my rotary blade than to the table -- there is a slight scratch in what I think is a protective coating, but that is it. Better be more careful next time!

I have been sewing up the binding together the binding for this quilt, going through all my blues, blue-greens and purples to find 2 1/2" strips and bits and pieces that are too small to be used in other quilts, concentrating on those fabrics that I have either had for ages and am tired of, or that I wonder why I bought in the first place. My stash is pretty small and good fabric is hard to come by, so I really don't like to use good fabric for the binding. I realize that it is important to use good quality since it will get worn out faster than other parts, but still!

Hopefully I will have a picture of the completed quilt for WIP Wednesday.

Butterfly Trails Quilted!

2007-02-04T19:09:00.000+08:00

Today was a good quilting day. I just finished up quilting Butterfly Trails. Now it only needs squaring up and binding. I am not sure what to do about binding. I was assuming I would use my leftover Kona Snow, but now that I actually think about it, the outside of the quilt is in blue scraps, and a white binding will not work. I am going to have to go through all my blues to see what blue I am willing to use up in binding.

I thought I was going to be in trouble finishing the quilting because I ran out of the finer light grey thread I bought on a trip a few months ago. I had another grey thread, but it was thicker and a bit too dark, and after quilting a section with it, I wan't too happy (but not unhappy enough to tear it all out either).

Then I remembered I had white silk thread on hand from a dismal silk quilt made a few years ago. I think that Diane Gaudinsky recommends silk thread, and maybe Karen McTavish, too. It was wonderful to quilt with. It is very fine and backtracking doesn't show at all. I only had 2 partial spools that started with 200 meters, so I was afraid it wouldn't be enough. I ran out of the thinner bobbin thread but found an old light grey polyester that was pretty fine, so I continued with that in the bobbin. Actually, I could have used it on the top as well because the color was okay, but luckily the silk thread worked out.

This was my first time using fine threads. The only threads available local are quite thick and linty. I am going to have to buy a major supply of some thinner threads because I loved how the quilting turned out. I don't have a picture of the quilt today, but I will try to get one tomorrow.

Olympics 2008

2007-02-03T14:35:00.000+08:00

Before I went on my last trip, I was downtown and found an exhibit of sculptures with the theme of the Beijing Olympics. China will host the Olympics in 2008, and it is a major source of pride and excitement. The sculptures were from a variety of artists from many different countries, but many were Chinese and had themes integrating traditional Chinese arts and images with the modern theme of the Olympics. I only have a few photos -- sorry for the quality, but I only had my phone camera and the time of day was not great. Still I hope it is interesting!

Christmas in February!

2007-02-02T13:28:00.000+08:00

My family got me a gift certificate for quilting things for Christmas, and my gifts arrived today! Hurray! There were all kinds of sales at the end of December, so I ordered from a bunch of different online stores and had everything shipped to my mom, who shipped them on to me. In addition to fabric, I got the Ricky Tims video Grande Finale, as well as a bunch of quilting notions. I love the fabrics, and I am excited to give all the notions a try.

I was away for the last 5 days, so I haven't been able to do any quilting. The trip was for work and was very productive, but I am exhausted! I have today off, so I had hoped to finish up the quilting on the Butterflies in Flight/Butterfly Trails quilt (opinions on the name welcome!), but it is not to be. I am so tired that my quilting is just not going well. I keep missing intersections and making wobbly lines. Time for some blogging instead. Hopefully by later in the afternoon I will be able to do some decent quilting.

My landscape quilt

2007-01-27T18:12:00.000+08:00

In my last post I mentioned that I had bought Landscape Quilts by Nancy Zieman and Natalie Sewell. It is a wonderful book and I love the techniques. They have a series of quilts to make to help you learn the techniques. So far I have only managed to make one but I have a few quilts in my mind for the future. I thought I would share the one that I made:

lorimn95

And some detail:

lorimn95

lorimn95

Thanks!

2007-01-27T07:53:00.000+08:00

Thanks to everyone who made such encouraging comments about my Blue Marquee/Butterfly Trails quilt from WIP Wednesday. Joyce asked about the flowers and butterflies, and whether they were applique or embroidery or from existing fabrics. Actually, they are cut out from various fabrics I had on hand, so I believe that makes those bits broderie perse (?). Two summers ago when I was in the US, I got a copy of Landscape Quilts by Nancy Zieman and Natalie Sewell. I absolutely fell in love with their quilts and determined to make one. Now, I am not really a floral fabric person, naturally leaning more to textures and batiks, but I bought a ton of floral FQs in preparation for future landscape quilts (despite the fact that what I really wanted to do was some forest scenes).

I used a variation on their landscape technique, basically cutting out the motifs from the fabrics and layering them on the quilt. They say not to use stablizer because in a landscape quilt you use a lot of layers, but I fused the stablizer to the fabric, cut out the motifs and then fused them to the quilt. It is great fun playing with the motifs and figuring where they will go. I then just straight stitched around the motifs in the closest thing I had to matching thread. Simple and fun!

Progress on the Blue Marquee

2007-01-24T06:40:00.000+08:00

which, I think will be known as "Butterfly Trails" or "Butterflies in Flight" or something like that. I have been pretty busy this week so I haven't been able to do as much on it as I wanted, and the rest of the week is even busier, so I am posting my WIP first thing in the morning. Here is a picture to show a bit of the shape it is taking. I have a wonderful dragonfly stencil I wanted to use on this quilt, too, but now I can't seem to see where to use it. We'll see.

lorimn95

lorimn95

The Mastermind

2007-01-23T21:24:00.000+08:00

Debra posted about the Myer-Briggs personality test, so I thought I would join in the fun. I have done a few online tests, and the result of this one was the same: iNTj -- the mastermind. Apparently it is a rare result, composing no more than 1% of the population. In one of the descriptions it said:

"When it comes to their own areas of expertise -- and INTJs can have several -- they will be able to tell you almost immediately whether or not they can help you, and if so, how. INTJs know what they know, and perhaps still more importantly, they know what they don't know. "

That fits exactly! If it is my area, I usually can see a solution or path immediately. Or, I can tell that what you need is not what I can provide. My job involves a lot of consulting and creating systems, helping organizations to get their systems working.

I am also 56% introverted. I am surprised it is not higher! I think as I get older I am becoming less and less social!

I saw a funny British show once in which they brought together a whole bunch of people to be tested, picked the individuals and who had the most classic results in each category, then gave them various tasks to do in teams while the psychologists predicted what would happen. It was hilarious, and the experts were right on more often than not.

Sally approves

2007-01-23T08:47:00.000+08:00

of the flannel quilt backing. This is the first quilt that I have used flannel on, and I hung it on the Nordic Track last night so it did not get to wrinkled before the next time I got to work on it. Sally definitely approves of my fabric choice.

"I'm so cute, don't make me move!"

It is really a narrow space in there. I am glad she didn't end up getting stuck by the pins in it! Some of them have a tendency to pop open.Usually she stays off my quilts in progress, even when I have them out on the floor. had to force her to move so I could do my morning exercise.

"Okay, if I can't have the flannel one, I guess I can use this one." Please excuse the debris from DS getting ready for school.

Musings on Culture

2007-01-20T22:19:00.000+08:00

This week, American Idol started to be shown here. Of course we don't get to vote, but my son and I usually enjoy seeing the different singers and deciding who should win. This time, DH was in the room for the first day's auditions, and he had to put on earphones and block it out, it bothered him so much. There did seem to be an abundance of poor singers this year. His comment, aside from expression of astonishment that DS and I could stand to listen to it, was that something must be seriously wrong with the culture to have so many people totally unaware of just how bad they are.

Granted, a tv show will tend to choose the most dramatic examples to entertain people. But still, just how is it that people can end up so unable to see themselves clearly. Did no one ever say, "honey, we love you and appreciate your singing, but you are simply not that good." Where does truthfulness come in?

Here, people, especially friends and teachers, can be very blunt and even harsh about your faults and weaknesses. While it took a bit of getting used to, and I can't say I always like to hear it, I have also found it freeing. I don't need to pretend to be someone I am not. My friends and colleagues like me even though they see my faults, and tell me they do. It seems to me that the "I don't care what you say, I believe I am great" attitude is really just the flipside of "I am terrible, I have no good points at all, I am worthless". Both lack an ability to see reality and are mainly focused on self.

We all have the experience of being discouraged by someone, and we probably try not to discourage others. At the same time, though, when does encouragement and support become a nurturing of blindness and a kind of lying to oneself and others? How do you avoid discouraging people, but at the same time, help them to see reality in a way that they can develop their potential?

Quilting Designs

2007-01-20T22:03:00.000+08:00

This week I was in an older part of Macau that I don't often visit, and I came across what I think would make wonderful quilting designs. What do you think?

I figured it out

2007-01-17T23:10:00.000+08:00

I am so excited about my Blue Marquee quilt because I have figured out what to do with all that white. I found some fusible web, so I am going to be adding applique, but I will not reveal my design yet. I think it will be fun, though.

It is my first time using fusible web, so I did some experimenting on leftover scraps. The only problem is that my quilt is already basted. I have decided not to unbaste the whole thing but just to unbaste the borders when I am ready to fuse the applique pieces. I was so eager to try the applique that I did all the basic grid quilting at record pace. Then I unpinned the border, folded the backing and batting back and fused the applique to the border. I re-basted the border and free-motion stitched around the motif edges. Although there will be some fraying, it turned out pretty well and just looks like a quilting design on the back, so I think that is the way I will be going on this quilt.

I am not nearly as excited about my red Out of the Box quilt -- the evil Red Monster I posted about yesterday. I originally intended to hand quilt it with parallel lines in the background and motifs in the squares, and I got about 1/3 of the way through before abandoning hand quilting. Parallel lines have got to be the world's most boring motif to quilt by machine. They are also considerably more difficult to do well than I thought. My supposedly parallel lines seem to wander here and there. I have decided to throw in some random changes in direction and odd geometric motifs here and there to hide how awful my parallel lines are. I am thinking I should eventually give this quilt away, but I feel bad for whoever receives it!

I have -- or should I say had? -- a fantasy of doing an intricate whole-cloth wall hanging with very variations on traditional motifs including cross hatching -- that dream is now dead. I have no desire to do so many parallel lines again! I still may do my whole cloth quilt, but crosshatching and channels will be a very small part of it!

So, in all it's glory, the Red Monster. It has a lot of threads because of the basting for hand quilting, and you can't see the quilting (probably a good thing!). I can't wait for it to be done!

And its better loved brother, with my son's feet:

lorimn95

Am I attached to my quilts?

2007-01-16T23:30:00.000+08:00

Forrest Jane asked the question about whether we are attached to our quilts, in the sense of whether it is easy to give them away or not. I think for me, I generally am attached to them. If I have made something with the idea from the beginning of giving it to someone, I have no difficulty giving it away even if I love the way it turned out. For the ones I have made for myself or my family, the thought of giving them away feels a bit like giving away one's children. They may not be perfect, but I learned something from them and there is something about them I love -- either the pattern itself, or the fabrics and colors I chose. I did give away three smaller quilts to friends this year, and while I think they liked them, I am not sure I really should have given them away.

The quilts I gave away were ones that I basically liked. Now, if I really don't like a quilt, or think the quality is just too poor, I can't imagine giving them to someone else! How could I foist something I don't even want myself onto an unsuspecting non-quilter?

There is one quilt in my collection that I wouldn't feel too bad about giving away -- it is one of only two true UFOs -- the one that sat on my bedroom table for a whole year trying to guilt me into working on it, the one I intended to hand quilt before finding out how much i love machine quilting. The one for which I chose an absolutely boring background quilting motif of parallel lines, got 1/3rd the way through and lost interest. It is also too small because I ran out of fabric and figured it was big enough for a lap quilt at least. The Little Red Monster. My red Out of the Box quilt.

The Little Red Monster is acutally one of a pair. It uses wonderful batik fabrics I had on hand, against a bright red background. It's colors are...jarring. The other one of the pair uses the same batiks against a blue background. It is soothing and calm, and somehow refreshing. It was the first quilt I attempted free-motion quilting on. The free motion quilting could use some work, but I love the quilt with all its faults. It hangs on a decorative ladder in my bedroom because no one in the family will use it because it, too, is too small (this time because I was so happy cutting that I didn't realize I had cut far too many pieces and used up all the fabric that should have been for the borders). It will probably never be used at my house, and it would make a great gift for a child, but I doubt I will be giving it away. Maybe I need to work more on generosity.

I did post a picture last Wednesday of the Little Red Monster sitting on my sewing table waiting for quilting. It is probably going to be a major theme of tomorrow's post as well. Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures handy of its current state or its more attractive twin. Hopefully, tomorrow I can remedy that situation!

Wednesday Already?

2007-01-10T20:08:00.000+08:00

I am surprised to find that it is already WIP Wednesday. Where did this week go? Right now I am doing two things. I have finished basting the Blue Marquee quilt (it is in process in the pictures). Looking at the quilt now, I wish I had put a blue inner border on as well as the outer border. There is too much white! I may have to put some applique on the white border, or come up with some really interesting quilting.

The other work in process is one of my two true UFOs -- the kind you haven't worked on in ages, in which you have totally lost interest. I started this quilt a year ago, as one of a pair. I ended up short of fabric on both of them, so they are too small. I intended to hand quilt this one, and machine quilt its brother. I discovered I loved machine quilting and got no joy in hand quilting, so this one sat on a table in my bedroom for months and months, until I finally put it away. Now I have decided to do it by machine, regardless of how it ends up looking. It is funny because even though the other one is too small and was my first attempt at free motion quilting, I really like how it turned out. But I really have no desire to even look at this one. I hope I come to like it again by the time I have finished quilting it. It is now on my sewing machine ready to start quilting. DS has exams this week so I haven't managed to actually start, but it is ready to go.

A Dog's Life

2007-01-09T20:45:00.000+08:00

Since finishing the Blue Marquee quilt top, I haven't done much of anything productive. I am rather dreading the sandwiching of the top, one of my least favorite parts of quilting. I made two charms, which were a hit with DS -- he was even offering my services to friends so that they could have one! I also pulled out my Red Out of the Box UFO, got it on the machine ready to quilt, and then had a guest arrive, so aside from putting the right color thread in the machine, nothing has actually been done.

So, in lieu of quilting: our dog.

Our dog, Sally, is very attuned to me (provider of food and walks). Usually when I wake up in the morning, Sally is waiting outside my bedroom door. All it takes is me breathing like I am awake to have her stationed outside the door, waiting for me to get up. On the rare occasion that I am up before her, I hear sudden scrambling sounds while she rushes to greet me. Accompanying the sound of her nails on the wooden floor, there is sometimes a muffled sound of ...dog on furniture. I have wondered if she was getting on the furniture while we are asleep, but usually the beanbag is under the table and the other chairs showed no obvious proof of dog use.

Yesterday, though, there was proof positive:

lorimn95

A break from our regularly scheduled programming: a matter close to my heart

2007-01-08T21:16:00.000+08:00

Terri at StegArt asked me about the Baha'i Faith, and I realized some people reading may not be familiar with the Faith. The short answer is that the Baha'i Faith is a world-wide religion that began in 1844. Baha'is follow the teachings of Baha'u'llah, the prophet and founder of the Baha'i Faith. Baha'u'llah's teachings are vast and touch upon many aspects of human life, both spiritual and practical (though that does not seem to be the right word since spiritual things are also practical).

What seems to me to be a key element of the Baha'i Faith, however, is Baha'u'llah's explanation that throughout history, humanity has developed through various stages. Different Prophets or Teachers (such as Christ, Mohammad, Buddha and Baha'u'llah himself) have guided and stimulated the advancement of human civilization, and all the religions of the world are fundamentally part of one civilizing process. Humanity is now on the threshold of a new stage in its development, the stage of maturation. The new stage of human development brings both new powers and new responsibilities. But, like the stage of adolescence for individuals, it is a stage with many upheavals. If we are to reach maturity, we need to change patterns of behavior developed in childhood but no longer appropriate to either our capacity or our goals, and to understand new principles that were previously beyond our capacity to recognize. And, we will have to learn to apply those new and renewed teachings both in our personal lives and in the organization of society. Baha'u'llah explains that at this stage in human history, the most fundamental challenge is our recognition of the unity of humankind. Only when the oneness of humankind is fully recognized can humanity hope to establish a harmonious and peaceful world civilization.

There is a link on my sidebar to The Baha'is Website for those who want a more extensive (and more elegant!) introduction, but I also want to share some recent events in Egypt affecting Baha'is that have been on my mind in recent weeks since mid December. There are no quilts or quilting in this, but I hope you will indulge me a bit and allow me to share something that troubles my deeply. To understand the situation and my feelings, though, you may need a bit more background.

Since its beginnings, the Baha'is have been persecuted in many Islamic countries including Egypt. One reason is that Baha'is are considered heretics because they follow the teachings of Baha'u'llah, while Muslims believe that Mohammed was the final prophet and that God will send no more Teachers for mankind. But further reasons are that there are no clergy in the Baha'i Faith, and those religious leaders who are attached to their name and position see the Faith as a threat to their own power. Further, Baha'i teachings such as the equality of men and women are not easily accepted and are sometimes seen as a threat to the social order.

In Egypt, the Baha'i Faith is not one of the recognized religions. However, identifying your religion is required for all government documents such as national IDs, passports, marriage and birth certificates. Last year, an Egyptian Baha'i went to the court to ask, not for recognition of the Baha'i Faith in Egypt, but just for the right to put "other" or leave the religion space blank on documents asking for religion. In a recent high-court ruling, that request has been denied.

What does this ruling mean? It hits me particularly close to home as I have recently visited with an Egyptian Baha'i friend living abroad. Her passport will soon expire, but despite official policy being that passports can be renewed within 6 months of expiration, each time she goes to the embassy, she is told, "Come back in a month or two." They will not renew her passport without her putting either Muslim, Jew or Christian (the three recognized religions) in the place for religion on the application. Since they already know she is a Baha'i, they will not refuse to help her outright for fear of criticism for violation of human rights, but will delay and obstruct until she is forced to return to Egypt to try to get a new passport there. When in Egypt, she will face the same runaround, with barrier after barrier being presented unless she is willing to lie about her religion. But the Baha'i Writings explain that "Truthfulness is the foundation of all human virtues. Without truthfulness, progress and success, in all the worlds of God, is impossible for any soul." How can she be asked to deny her religion, something so significant to her own identity and purpose?

From one perspective, return to Egypt shouldn't be a big problem for my friend -- at least she has family and friends there. But she will have to break up her family, and she has a small son, only about 3 years old. My friend was married in Hong Kong and has a valid marriage license, but the Egyptian government will not recognize it as is. Instead she must have the marriage certificate re-issued from Egypt -- again, something that cannot be done without lying about her religion. By law, her son should have the right to an Egyptian passport since his mother is Egyptian, but again, he cannot get a passport without his mother declaring him to be a Muslim, Christian or Jew. This means that her son may very well be denied a visa to Egypt when she must return home to renew her passport.

One solution would be for her to change citizenship, but her husband is Iraqi, and getting Iraqi citizenship is not an easy matter at this time. Because of the overall disorder in the country, no simple administrative procedures work as intended, and she would have to be in Iraq in person to follow the entire process. The dangers in Iraq make that too great a risk. And anyway, why should she have to change her citizenship in the first place?

Baha'u'llah has explained that the most pressing issue facing humankind at this time is unity. The unity of humankind seems such a simple statement, but its implications are profound and in many cases beyond our current vision. One thing is clear, though. Justice is indispensable to the establishment and maintenance of unity. "The purpose of justice is the establishment of unity amongst men" In perpetuating a system of such gross injustice to the followers of the Baha'i Faith and other unrecognized religions in Egypt, the Egyptian government both goes against the Human Rights conventions it has itself signed, and turns its back on the teachings of Islam, which call for justice and fairmindedness. Further, in this ruling Egypt aligns itself with the destructive forces in the world that are placing themselves as barriers to world unity rather than supporters of it. My heart goes out to my friend who must suffer through this period of uncertainty and face the possibility of being separated from her son and husband, and it is filled with admiration for all those Egyptian Baha'is who, through their quiet, steadfast adherence to their beliefs and to the principle of truthfulness, strive to advance the forces for unity and peace in this world.

Thanks, Becky and Sophie!

2007-01-07T21:21:00.000+08:00

Sophie shared the photo of sidewalk tiles from yesterday's post over at the quilting forum at About, and Becky (Rabidquilter) actually drafted some blocks based on the tile. They are wonderful! Check them out in this thread at About. Now I will really have to try making the block! But not until I finish the other works in progress!

Here is a quick picture of the top I finished up yesterday. I didn't get any time for quilting beyond piecing the back for the quilt. I am rather uninspired on the quilting at this point. In my recent quilts I have used a lot of freehand "background motifs" and my version of McTavishing, so that the quilts are quite densely quilted. I am thinking of leaving the blue parts unquilted because there are so many seam allowances, and possibly using different block motifs in each of the smaller and larger plain squares. It would look great with trapunto in each of the larger white squares, but I am not sure that I am up for so much trapunto, especially as I don't have any water soluble thread and have to pick out all my basting stitches. Any ideas for quilting would be very welcome!

It arrived! This time it really did.

2007-01-06T16:51:00.000+08:00

My Kona Snow order arrived! I wasn't able to do much with it during the week because of work, but today I have been able to work on my Blue Marquee quilt. I now have a finished top, after only a little work last night and most of the day today. DS and DH were both out, so I had no distractions from quilting. There was a bit of a delay and a near disaster on this quilt. As I was putting on the borders, our helper (one of the benefits of living in this part of the world is being able to have help for cleaning and ironing) offered to iron the border I had just put on. That allowed me to work on the next border, which still required some piecing. But she burned it! She felt really bad, and so did I. I am glad I still had plenty of fabric left, though. I took off the border and cut off the burned part. There is still a smaller burn on one of the plain blocks, but we used bleach on the cut off piece of border and it turned out fine, so I will bleach the spot on the block as well.

This has got to be one of the best scrap-busting quilts around. It goes together so quickly, and you don't really have to worry much about accuracy. I found a white and green stripped flannel fabric here for the backing. It is not a fabric I would normally have chosen, but it fits the spring feeling I want for the quilt and it is soo soft! I think this will turn out to be one of the family's favorite quilts to snuggle under. I don't have a picture of the top yet, but I do have a few pictures of life in Macau.

The picture at the top of the post is of tiling on the one of the sidewalks downtown. Wouldn't it make a great quilt block? Perhaps because of the Portuguese influence in Macau, there are a lot of tiled areas. Buildings use a lot of marble and granite for flooring, and they can be a great source for ideas for quilt blocks, too.

The two other pictures are of shops. See the birds hanging in the one on the left? People still take their birds out for walks and keep them at the store with them, then take them home at night. You can hear the birds singing as you shop.

Then there is this shop. What can I say? Would you buy anything from this shop?

It's Wednesday!

2007-01-03T17:23:00.000+08:00

There has been mighty little quilting going on at my house over the last few days. The main work in progress has been my office. I have just begun working at home instead of at the office, so this week has been spent making the workspace more efficient and effective. This seemed to mainly consist of taking everything out of my work cabinet, putting it into different piles and moving the piles to other parts of the house, which in turn necessitated taking more things off of their shelves, putting them in piles, and moving them again. But I am now about 90% done and can take a break for some quilting and blogging.

The little quilting I have done has been piecing for my Single Wedding Ring quilt. I am still waiting for the Kona Snow to arrive, so my Blue Marquee is exactly as I posted it last Wednesday. My Single Wedding Ring now has 8 completed blocks! I usually like to use a variety of fabrics in my quilts, and but this quilt uses only two. I am using a McKenna Ryan fabric I found in Thailand a few months ago. I absolutely fell in love with the fabric, and the variation in the fabric gives the blocks the depth I usually get from using more fabrics.

The quilt is based on the Single Wedding Ring quilt featured in Quilting Makes the Quilt. I love that book, and this quilt especially appeals to me. I can already see how I will quilt it -- with wild Victorian feathers in all the plain blocks. I think this will be the quilt for me to learn to do freehand feathers, though I do have one feather stencil as a starting point if I want it.

Joyce asked earlier if I am in China. I am in Macau, a former Portuguese colony near Hong Kong and now part of China, but my work takes me to China frequently. Macau is a very, very small place and quite easy to live in. I will try to post some pictures in later posts so you can see what it is like.

The end of 2006. Welcome 2007!

2006-12-31T15:49:00.000+08:00

Only another 8 hours or so until the end of 2006 and the beginning of a new year. Hurray! This is the first year in my life when I can honestly say that I am eager to see the old year go. I had some wonderful experiences, including two trips to Haifa, Israel to the Baha'i World Center. It seems quite unreasonable to say so, but despite those trips and a wonderful family, on the whole, UGH! I think I will have to do all the various folk ceremonies to send the bad spirits away so that 2007 is better! Here in Macau, at Chinese New Year (not until February this year) we have 3 days of fireworks to scare off evil spirits and bad luck. In Japan, on Setsubun you throw dried beans while calling out, "Happiness inside, demons out!" Unfortunately that one is also not until around February. I remember being in New Mexico once for the new year and seeing the burning of the Zozobra (the accumulated misery of the year, in the form of a wood and paper mache sculpture of a pretty scary giant man). However, DH may not appreciate me burning one in the apartment. Anyone know any good ways to make sure 2007 is not like 2006? Any I can use in the next couple of hours?

On the quilting front, I think I was pretty productive in 2006. I finished

Autumn Roads
A wallhanging using leftover Autumn Roads blocks
A table topper using more leftover Autumn Roads blocks
Butterfly Dreams, for a friend's daughter
Spring Stars, for the family
Two Kimono wallhangings
A landscape, Hanging Garden
Once Upon A Time, a story telling quilt for a friend's son
Almost Amish, for the family
Still Not Amish, for the family
Two wall-hanging/table toppers from leftover blocks from Almost Amish.

Not too shabby! I hope I can do as well in the coming year. I am also determined to begin exercising again and get myself into shape. Five years ago, before I was appointed to a position I currently hold, I was in great shape and exercised regularly. Over the five years, exercise has completely fallen by the wayside. Although my weight is still fine, I am definitely out of shape. Exercise is coming back on my schedule this year! Welcome 2007!

Since I have no quilty pictures, here are some from one of my trips to the Baha'i World Center. I plan to use the one of the open gates as the basis for a wallhanging someday in the future.

It's here! Umm. No it's not.

2006-12-30T19:56:00.000+08:00

Yesterday I was very excited to find a package waiting for me at home -- a fabric package! When there was a sale on at Hancock's of Paducah, I ordered Kona Snow for the Blue Marquee quilt and the Single Wedding Ring, and some Kona black just to have on hand. It has taken a long time to get here because of the Christmas season,and I thought it was rather a coincidence that just after posting about Blue Marquee, the fabric I needed to finish it would come. Because of the cost of international shipping, I always ask the store to fill the shipping envelope to the full with fabric remnants so that I get my money's worth. However, when I opened the package, only the remnants were there. By themselves. Huh???

I wrote to Hancock's and there was a glitch putting together the order because of the backlogging of some fabrics. They will make up the shipping cost on the other part of my order that was backlogged. But, unfortunately, I am still not able to work on the Blue Marquee. Instead I am doing more half square triangles for the Single Wedding Ring Quilt. Since my piecing is not always accurate, I have cut the strips a bit bigger than required and have been cutting the finished HSTs down to correct size. I do love the quilt, but the extra trimming step is getting quite old! I have taken to leaving a pile of pieced but not trimmed fabrics on the kitchen table with my cutting mat. Every time I pass by I trim one or two. My poor family. I am sure that DH thought that giving me the dining room table for my sewing table would mean the rest of the apartment was free of quilting gear.

On a happy note, my family is now using my quilts! I love to see them curled up under the quilts. When I first started quilting, I basically made wall hangings. Then I took a long break from quilting while DS was young (about7 years!), and about 1 1/2 years ago was bitten by the quilt bug again. Since then I have been making lap quilts and throws. The first few turned out too small. Even DS wanted more quilt to cover himself up with!

The last 3 have been just about twin size, but I faced a new problem. My quilts were a bit on the stiff side, so DS preferred his store-bought comforter. :((. I finally figured out that the stiffness was partially because of a stiff fabric I had used, partially because of the combination of the batting and the quilting itself, but mainly because I had never gotten around to washing the quilts! You can tell laundry is high on my priority list, LOL. Now that they have been washed with fabric softener, they are getting full use. Yesterday, DS and DH both brought them to bed to sleep under after using them while watching tv. Unfortunately, I have no pictures. They are probably both grateful.

I also recently got another picture of a quilt in use. I made a pair of wall hanging for my mom and one of her friends, and mom sent a picture of it in its new home. I have only recently begun giving quilts away because I didn't think they were ready for 'prime time' as it were. They still aren't but I am now giving them away anyway. It is fun to see others enjoying the quilts. I made the pattern for this one myself based on pictures I had seen in Hancock's catalog and one the web. Here it is hanging up:

And some details of the quilting from the back and from the front before binding:

WIP Wednesday

2006-12-27T15:05:00.000+08:00

It is WIP Wednesday, and luckily I can take part of the day off for quilting and posting. I have a number of works in progress, but I think I will post about the one that is closest to being a finished top - My "Blue Marquee" quilt. I saw this quilt in The Modern Quilt Workshop and just loved it. It is a great stash buster. Since I have so many blue scaps and because I want a set of blue or green spring-like quilts (I have one at this point), I decided to make this one in blue and white.

It was also a great contrast to the Rattlesnake quilt, which requires concentration. This one is pretty mindless to put together! All you have to do is sew your strips together, cut them up, mix them up, and sew into long strips again. Then it is just chain piecing the blocks together. It went really quickly, and it will have lots of room for fancy quilting. In fact this could aready be a finished top. I have finished all the blocks I need. All I am missing is the alternating plain blocks. I orderd the plain white fabric from the US, and it has shipped, but it has not yet arrived :( . When I was getting to the last few blocks, I was running of leftover strips, so I ended up piecing together very small scraps that were at least 2 1/2" wide. I just barely had enough for the last block. Then last night, when I was cleaning up my sewing area and sorting scraps, I found a whole set of strip sets I had made and put away to use with this quilt. I hope there are enough for an inner border!

Today has been quite a fight with the computer. Due to the earthquake in Taiwan, I cannot access many of the websites I usually use or visit. Sites from Hong Kong and Macau are okay, Taiwan sites are out, and sites from other parts of the world vary. Some sites are totally impossible to access, while others are okay for a while then fail to load. Hope everyone in Taiwan is okay. I got a bunch of messages from one good friend I work with, so he seems to be okay.

On the web front, I did finally figure out how to get the Quilt Studio link on my blog, though. For some reason for the past several days, blogger would not accept it when I tried to post it as HTML coding in the widget box, but when I added it as if it were text, blogger decided it liked it. I think this means I will soon officially be part of the Quilt Studio Ring.

Merry Christmas!

2006-12-25T19:22:00.000+08:00

Merry Christmas to all! I hope everyone has had good holidays. Today we had Chinese Dim Sum for the Christmas brunch. Not too traditional for most parts of the world, I would think, but quite enjoyable. After brunch with friends, we went downtown for a bit. Here is a view of the neighborhood.

I got a bit of time for quilting in. It looks like I now have two very slow projects going! I worked on my single wedding ring quilt first. Each block has 16 half-square triangles, so I will need 320 in all. After getting all, or almost all the regular squares cut out and pieced, I started working on half-square triangles. I only did one strip's worth, but I am already getting very tired of half-square triangles! This is a time that I wish I had Thangles to try out. After making one strip's worth of half square triangles, I started piecing, but I only ended up with enough HST to make about 2 full blocks. Unfortunately, the way I put things together, I ended up with 1 full block and 2 that are about 2/3's done. I wasn't up for any more half square triangles.

I then went to work on my second WIP -- a Rattlesnake quilt based on Karen K. Stone's pattern. It is my first attempt at paper piecing. I love how sharp the points turn out and how flat everything lays. I do find that it requires a lot of concentration to get everything right, so I can't do too many blocks at once. After piecing one curved and pointy section, I think I am done for the night!

It's Done!

2006-12-22T13:18:00.000+08:00

I got back last night from an extremely busy trip to Beijing, so there has been no quilting going on here for the last week. It was a very productive trip, though, and I got to see lots of good friends. I brought DS with me, even though all his friends would be in school. Luckily, he made some new friends, got to see some of the old ones, and had a good time until the second to the last day, when he got sick. He was okay for traveling last night, though, and we are both happy to be relaxing at home today.

This morning I was ready to get quilting, and I finished up the edges on Not Quite Amish that needed some extra quilting. I am not all that pleased with how the borders turned out, but it is done! I am sure my family won't mind. Here is its:

The full quilt.
I love how the "block" sections turned out. They are actually four blocks set together. It is a great quilt to make because it has so few pieces in the blocks and they come together really quickly. You could also set the blocks like pinwheels. Someday I will make one like that, too, but I am out of many of the fabrics I used, now.

The block detail and the quilting from the back. It seems the quilting always photographs better from the back! I actually like to use the back of the quilt to see how my quilting designs are evolving and to figure out where I will need more quilting or which motif will work best.

Binding Finished

2006-12-16T09:22:00.000+08:00

I finished sewing on the binding on Not Quite Amish last night, and this morning i have been trying to fix the gaps that I left at the outside of the border. On the short border gaps I have tried two things. I just got Diane Gaudinsky's machine quilting book -- it is fantastic -- and on one end I decided to try her "bouncing banana motif" after outlining the design a couple of times. I love the motif, but the end result is too dense. I probably could have made the bananas bigger, but that didn't occur to me until it was too late. It did flatten out that end of the quilt, though!

On the other short end of the quilt I did some looser outlining of the motif and then did a loose McTavishing. I am happier with that result, so I will do it on the remaining two borders. That does mean that one border will look quite different from the others, but my feeling at the moment is that this a quilt for the family, and they will not care that it is not perfect! It is a bit disappointing because I really love how the top turned out, but I feel I have not enhanced it with the quilting. I love how I did the blocks, but a better and quieter choice for the sashing and border would have turned out much better, I think. A learning experience, I guess. If this quilt lasts a hundred years, people will either look at it and say, "What was she thinking?", or they will find the eccentric choices charming. It certainly has the "Dorky Homemade Quilt Look"!

My realizations about my choice of quilting motifs has made me really admire the author of "The Quilting Makes the Quilt." This quilt was actually really easy to put together, so it would not be difficult to make another one just like it and quilt it differently. But as much as I love the design, I cannot imagine making another, much less five like in "The Quilting Makes the Quilt."

I won't have quilt pictures to post today, so I will add some dog pictures and some links to my favorite dog-related web sites. The first is Goodpaws, a wonderful community where one can find dog lovers who have faced any problems you may be facing with your pets, both furry and non-furry, and are more than happy to share experiences and make suggestions. I usually only pay attention to the dog related sections, but there are sections for cats, reptiles, rodents and so forth. The people are friendly and love to share stories about their pets. It is a great place for pet lovers to hang out. The same can be said of the second site, The Family Dog, Inc. , and in fact there is a lot of overlap in the communities. Run by Sarah Wilson and Brian Kilcommons, both outstanding dog trainers, it is also a site where you can get practical guidance from a renowned dog trainer as well as find friends who share your enthusiasm for dogs. I found the site when I was having a lot of problems with our dog, and Sarah's willingness to guide us over the Internet was invaluable. I also had the privilege to take two classes with her (too bad I couldn't bring our dog!) and they were fantastic. I only wish I lived near them and could participate in more classes. The links are to the main pages of the sites so you can see all the resources available, but the message boards are wonderful.

Here is Sally helping pick up laundry around the house. It is easier training her to help pick it up then training the family to put it in the basket! She does sometimes get creative and pull things out of the basket, bring them you and put them in the basket again, just so you will give her a treat.

Hmmm...This is going to take longer than I had thought.

2006-12-13T21:37:00.000+08:00

I am about half way through binding my "Not Quite Amish" quilt (Or, "Still Not Amish" or another variation as I can't decide on the name). I had hoped I would be able to share a picture soon, but it looks like that is not to be. When I decided on the quilting motif for the sashing, I didn't think things through properly, and when I got to the borders I realized the motif isn't wide enough for the border. Originally I thought it would be relatively easy to extend it to fill the area, but in practice, it didn't work at all. The resulting space is too narrow to add another half motif and have it still look good, but too wide to leave unquilted. No matter, I thought, I'll just quilt some parallel lines to fill in that area. Oops, big mistake. After finishing the quilting and squaring up the quilt, those parallel lines seem to wander to and away from the binding like nobody's business. They are a disaster. Luckily, I only did one or two lines, thinking I would fill in more if needed. I am either going to have to pick them all out or come up with a fill design that will cover them up! Argh! A dense filler design would probably work, but it will tend to make the quilt stiff, at least until it is well washed. I am using Warm and Natural batting, which I like, and which is the only one I can get (a topic for another post, I think), but I need something more drapable. Or else I have to wash my quilts about 5 times each to get them softened up, and I am not that fond of laundry.

Since I can't share pictures of Not Quite Amish, I will share the small wall hangings made with the leftover blocks from my Not Amish quilts. For the Almost Amish Quilt I used a lot of (to my mind) less traditional filler motifs and practiced my McTavishing. This was all done before getting the book and video, so it is just a rough approximation of McTavishing at best. For this wallhanging, I used a very lacy design in the block and McTavishing in the background.

Unfortunately, the lacy design is totally lost in the batiks. It was good practice, though. For the second one, I went the other direction and did feathers in the block and left the background empty. Looks like it could use some more quilting in the background from the photo, though! Too late, it has already been given away.

Opening

2006-12-10T21:24:00.000+08:00

I have been browsing various quilt blogs for a while now, and I thought it was about time to try my own hand. I just came back from a work related trip that allowed me to visit the family of the woman that taught me to quilt. She has since passed away, but she was a wonderful, creative person who gave me a great gift with quilting. Though I took a rather long break from quilting when my son was young, I have recently come back to it with a vengence. Now, thanks to her generosity and kindness, I have a hobby that allows me to use my hands and my creativity, and that helps me to keep some balance in my life.

In starting this blog, I began to make a list of all the works I have in progress, and I found there is quite a collection! I am almost done with one quilt that I am calling "Not Quite Amish" or something like that. It is just lacking the binding, and possibly a bit more quilting, but I hope to post some pictures of it soon. What I can post now, though, is its sister quilt, "Almost Amish." I acquired some wonderful batiks and very bright prints that I wanted to find a use for, and this was the result. Fortunately or unfortunately, I accidently cut twice the number of patches I needed (I forgot the fabric was folded!). Not Quite Amish is the second quilt from that project, using the leftover blocks. There area also two very small wall hangings I have been able to make, still using the leftover blocks. Both these quilts have large open spaces for me to play with my machine quilting, my latest obsession.