It's February and 60 degrees !

I am blessed .. blessed with the ability to stay home on a warm day .. in FEBRUARY !  I didn't sleep well last night due to a possum teasing the dogs -- they were going to have that varmint by barking all night !  They did let me sleep in to counteract my not sleeping during the night.  So, after feeding horses, dogs, cat and chickens, the flock got out to play, the horses got some treats and a grooming .. and whoa -- it's NOON and I haven't had my first cup of coffee !  So I took a break and had some leftover vegetable lasagna I had made this past weekend, and went back to work.

Even the horses were enjoying today's great weather by sharing a nap !  While they napped, the flock enjoyed helping me garden. I would put some dirt in a bed and they would remove it to make sure there were no bugs. I'm going to plant some of my spring seeds now and use leftover gallon milk jugs as greenhouse environments to help start them during the 'cold' weather.  Not that we are having much in that department right now anyway.  There is still a chance however !

I've been working steadily on my log cabin blocks and am getting closer to finishing the blocks.  Since there are 64 blocks, it seems to have a life of it's own now.  Takes much longer to get logs on it seems.  Then of course I have to square each block.  Here's what the block looks like now.

There is only one more log that needs to go on the bottom of the block and I'm getting close !  It seems to take forEVER to square all the blocks now.  The block will measure 9" finished and I've been playing with how I want my quilt to look with borders.  I love working with my quilts in EQ quilt design software -- I can see them, I can change them and I don't have to sew a thing until I'm satisfied.

I have been playing in the software today trying to come up with a design I like .. and I think I've come to a final version.  This is how I am seeing my finished quilt -- I think I might put a different block in the corners, like Birds in the Air .. but I really like this version.  My first border is a frame border, then I used half square triangles (HSTs) to represent trees, and my final border represents mountains using the Delectable Mountains block.



Of course, I have plenty of time to get to the borders, but this is exciting to see this in a picture .. and of course, I am working on 2 other quilts at the same time. One is the back to my sister's log cabin --  my goal tonight is to add the greens and purples and be sure to make it square so that it quilts nicely.  The other is for my great-niece, the blocks are looking soooo cute. My sister suggested that since her name is Starr that I try to put some stars on the blocks.  I found my smallest cookie cutter and I'm going to make some of the flower centers star shapes ...

Back to the sewing table ...

Dee

A snow day and Valentine's Day

Snow days are great -- they lend themselves to being lazy. Just so happens everything in Arkansas also shuts down when it snows  LOL  But they also help me get different things accomplished. Years ago I used to make bread all the time. I've fallen out of practice, and a friend of mine has jumpstarted my wanting to do it again. She is also a is the 5 minutes a day to fresh bread bible. Over the past wonderful inspiration (especially when I'm at her house and some bread has just come out of the oven!) For my birthday, she gave me a copy of The Art of Artisan Bread which has some wonderful recipes and is the bible for fresh bread in 5 minutes a day. And we've been sharing sourdough starter and recipes as well. Well yesterday's snow day got me thinking about bread fresh out of the oven. I had whipped up a batch of dough last week but hadn't had the opportunity to get it done -- so yesterday, I had the smells of bread wafting thru the house. Now mind you I don't need to make 4 1# loaves -- I made 8 sourdough rolls instead LOL

Of course, I had to eat one right out of the oven, and it was heavenly. Today I think I'll make another batch of dough for a buttermilk white as I am expecting company this weekend!

A snow day also brings out the cardinals at my house. Their bodies against the white of the snow in the trees just brings a promise that spring really will be here soon. Of course, it's been feeling like spring all winter yet, and this was our very first snow of 2012.

There are several pairs of cardinals on all sides of the yard !

Melody and Shadow also enjoy a good snow -- me more so as it really does a great job on their muddy coats!

So now it's Valentine's Day .. a day that's been created by the makers of Hallmark to remember the ones you love with flowers, cards, and any other thing that can be thought of. But really, we should look at all the days we have the opportunity to remind someone we care -- so don't do it just today. Do it tomorrow, and the next day .. the ways we show we care aren't just about the flowers, but the moments we create in making dinner, or sharing a dessert. But there are many ways to show you care -- start by creating a new one everyday !  Happy Valentine's Day !

My favorite quilt block and Works in Progress it creates

I love quilt blocks. In a quilt, on a barn, in a pattern.  My first quilt class was a Quilt-in-a-Day Log Cabin class, and I was hooked when I saw how many quilts can come from just one block.  The block is the same but just a turn, a twist, different size logs in the block, or instead of a center square, put a another block in the center and make logs around that block.  In fact, upon review of my project shelf, I find not one or two log cabins, but several.  This love has only grown over the years, and I have collected several different patterns that have caught my eye.  But that class quilt still graces my couch, albeit a bit thin nowadays.

So, just how many log cabins do I have ?  I have a baby quilt in perfect pastels, perfectly cut and ready to piece, in a ziploc bag (aka Project in Ziploc Bag or PIZLB).  It was intended as a welcome home baby gift for a friend that was adopting a child, but it turned out to be twins and something else was done instead.





Then there's the log cabin nine patch, a pattern by Evelyn Sloppy from Log Cabin Fever.  All the nine patches are made and I needed 9 greens for the blocks, and I've traded out a few here and there. I've made the quilt before with my fellow quilters in LeRoy, NY, and the quilt graces a friend's home after she won the raffle that year.  I have decided on the greens, but I haven't cut them yet. So that is a Work in Progress, or Unfinished Object (WIP or UFO).

Then there's the Lonestar Log Cabin in blues and yellow.  In 2004 while working at a quilt shop in Virginia, I showed the owner my favorite Amish quilt pattern. I love Amish patterns, and I was a frequent visitor in the New Holland/Lancaster area where I always pawed over the finished quilts in this pattern. When she saw it, she asked if I had ever used the Lonestar QuiltSmart foundation.  At the time I had never heard of it.  Well, I've done several quilts using this foundation now, and this quilt is closer in the project que than it was at the time.  The center lonestar is done, and I have been collecting blues and yellows for those blocks and I do believe I am now set on those colors too (and now another WIP/UFO).

And then there's the log cabin I am working on right now.  While working at that same shop, when Moda came out with the Prairie Christmas fabric line, I was in love! I definitely overbought fabric as I planned for 2 quilts, but I could make at least one more and the back to this quilt I think.  The first quilt now lives in WNY with a friend aka sister. I used a wool bat and backed it with Thimbleberries flannel -- a very warm quilt for the long cold winter there. Not so much this year  LOL   My goal after completing that quilt was to make ME a quilt and I have yet to DO it.  In 2007 when I moved into this sewing room I set a goal: Finish the projects in the ziploc bags. I have pulled ones off the shelf and completed one, or used my stash and passed the fabric on.  But of course they have moved on to other states and other homes.  Over the past few nights I have been set on a course of stripping blocks and watching this block get larger, only 2 more logs to go!

So while I may be 'on a roll' here on this log cabin project, there will always be something that will get in the way. Laundry, meals, sleep .. so I'm trying to be productive and it seems that I stay up after all the animals go to bed and I can get sooooo much more done.  But once the center is done, the borders aren't just an afterthought. I'm toying with the idea of a pieced border around the center, maybe a small evener border, then possibly pieced pinwheel, smaller log cabins or spaced squares, or ??  The possibilites are endless. I plan my quilts in my quilt design software, EQ7, and I love how I can change blocks, change color, check dimensions, check borders, use the automatic border option... so many choices .. will let you know how it comes out ..

Til next time .. stitch on !

Dee

Is it really winter ? I must quilt !!

The weather in the mid-central south this year is unsettling, but don't get me wrong, I am not complaining. February normally the month we get our worst weather  .. aka 'tornado month' and I will appreciate not having any! I do like having 4 seasons -- a crisp fall with blazing colors, a crisp winter with chills and snow, then a budding spring giving renewal to the landscape and then comes summer, well it really goes to the extreme here in Arkansas, but we do have great weather until we reach the 100s.  But this year, the first frost came, we had some cold rains, clear crisp nights, a few thunderstorms. But then Mother Nature hit the reset button and has skipped right over to spring. The last week has been amazing -- high 50's, even a 60 or two, but daffodils which were just breaking the surface are now 10", some are blooming, and most trees and bushes that are supposed to be trimmed this month are budding out!  I look forward to winter, a break from the fall cleanup but I still get work done outside in the gardens by trimming, reworking the grounds and working compost and leaves into the beds. I guess I should have planted a winter garden instead  LOL  And I must admit, I am having the opportunity to do more with my chicken flock and ride/drive my horse!
During the 'winter' months I love to hibernate in my sewing room a bit more, playing with new designs, trying to recreate something I've seen, and trying to expand my use of my EQ7 quilt design software. The past couple years I have worked hard on completing projects I have set aside "to do".  They are bagged with fabrics and patterns and are technically UFO's, or unfinished objects, works in progress or projects in ziploc bags. As I look back on 2011, I did complete a  good number of quilts. And for the start of 2012, I'm on a roll! As with all good intentions, a distraction will always get in the way of the work-in-progress, ie need a baby quilt quick, or in this case, a homecoming for a friend that just completed cancer treatment for the past 3 months. It seems I always have a few 'in progress' and fit a quilt in between so it becomes a distraction. But I am never bored!

Now that this quilt is complete and labelled, it has been delivered to it's intended new owner and she loves it. Now to return to the 3 or so project(s) in progress that are on my table and the wall.  First is the tablerunner and stockings for my daughter for her new holiday theme. I did 3 stockings, need to add cuffs and lining, then complete the topstitching.

Second is the back for a king size quilt (104x110), it will be an offset log cabin blockfrom leftover fabrics from the top. Then there's the Civil War Tribute quilt I just had to do as I love anything Civil War. I have 2 block sets done and am ready to cut the third block commemorating the Battle of Gettysburg.

Next is a log cabin I pulled off the project shelf and am fervently stitching blocks. I started this one in early 2005. I made a quilt in this fabric line for a friend in WNY -- batted with wool and backed with a Thimbleberries flannel .. a toasty warm quilt! Now it's my turn to make a quilt for me. One thing I have realized over the past couple years is that I love to make quilts, I give them away freely, but I don't have any of my own and I have nothing to show for it. This is going to change!

Then there is the next minor distraction in my world. My niece had a baby girl in August that had a heart transplant in September. She is still in the Pediatric Cardiac unit @ Duke University, but she will be able to come home soon. So in September I found the most adorable layer cake by Deb Strain from her Meadow Friends line, along with a great pattern .. I thought QUICK baby quilt !  Thankfully she is still small  LOL

So today I have been sewing to my hearts content, and have made quite a bit of progress. There are 64 cabin blocks, so at the current size, only 6 blocks are fitting on a strip of fabric now. But I still have 2 more dark and light strips to add. On the baby quilt, I almost have all the shapes drawn for the turtles flowers and butterflies and will fuse them on different pieces and then blanket stitch with bright threads.

Dusk is fast approaching -- that means I must leave the sanctuary of my sewing room to put the flock to bed, feed the horses and feed myself so I can continue to sew. I plan on being able to add at least one more strip to the log cabin blocks and choose fabric for each shape and then fuse them tonight.

Stitch on !

Dee