Computer Quilt

Now that this quilt has made its way around the world to South Africa, and my DSIL has it, I can show it on my blog. DSIL (married to DD#1) is a computer programmer, and does web design as well. As a result, a lot of people think since he works with computers, he should be able to fix theirs.

He gets a bit tired of explaining that's not what he does, so I had someone with an embroidery machine make this, "No, I won't fix your computer, but thanks for asking" sign.


Here are some close-ups of the novelty fabrics I used. He is quite the cat person, so when I found the cat computer fabric, that one was definitely in. Some quilters from Stashbusters Yahoo group helped me with some of the fabrics since I was on no-buy at the time.

Here is a pic of most of the quilt. It is made from the I Spy with a Twist pattern by Lisa Moore. If you look at my sidebar, Ralph's woodsy quilt and Martha's angels are made from the same pattern. I've heard some quilter's say they don't like to make a pattern more than once, but this is one of those patterns that I go back to a lot. It seems completely different based on color choices, and I think it's fun to make up a good pattern in more than one colorway.

I've had some finishes, and I'll post on those soon. Some before Christmas, some after, you know how it goes this time of year.

RRCB Step 2 +

I finally finished step 2 of the RRCB mystery quilt. Here are all my HST's pinned into groups of four, per directions.

When I saw step three I was undecided as to what to do. I already have 8 1/2 inch paper foundations cut, because I had already been making 8 1/2 inch string blocks. I am using blue as my neutral/background color, and I was aiming for a medium shade of blue. The thing is, I have four blue string blocks done in the palest blues (I was going to use it in a baby quilt) and I have 8 blocks already done in the shades above, medium blues to navy. I hadn't planned on using such dark blues, but having 8 blocks already done is pretty tempting. The 4 light blue blocks are not as tempting, as I have very few light blue strings and I'd have to cut them all. Now the real dilemma, do I go for it with all the various blues, or should I start from scratch with just the medium blues? I may not have to choose for a bit, since I am up to my neck in other projects. I will have to cut more strings no matter what, but I'll raid my 1 1/2 inch strips drawers first. If I go for the shades like I have above, I probably have enough strings for half the blocks, plus the 8 already done, so that would be an advantage and I'll have less to cut.

Right now I'm leaning towards going for it. I figure the worst that will happen is the quilt will be too dark for the person I was thinking of giving it to. Then I'd have to make them a different quilt when the occasion warrants, but that's not so bad. I can always find someone who will like this one.

I got the chunky churndash quilts for the grandtwins pin-basted, as well as the D9P charity quilt. I'm working on quilting some other projects right now, but these are ready when I'm done with the others.

Another D9P

I am seriously trying to finish things up before the end of the year. I had this quilt top partially assembled, and I completed it tonight. I also got the center of another quilt top together, but I need to cut borders for it, maybe tomorrow during baby's nap.

I got a bit more done on my RRCB mystery quilt. I still haven't completed step 2, but I'm close. I'm only sewing the mystery quilt as leaders and enders, and since my main projects are assembling quilts, I don't have a lot of need for leaders and enders. Every once in a while I sew up about a dozen HST's so I feel like I'm getting something done.

Tomorrow is my last day of babysitting for a couple weeks, and I'm hoping to spend quite a bit of time next week quilting. Whatever I don't have time to quilt by next weekend is not going to be quilted for a while, so I really need my time to be productive. I did get my new walking foot, and a spare as well, so I shouldn't have any problems with that. I will be crosshatching a couple quilts, so I needed the walking foot. I haven't decided what to do on the other quilts, so we'll see. I might do some free-motion quilting, I might take out some stencils again, who knows?

At the end of next week I will close the cabinet with the Juki, and it will stay closed for a while. I need it put away so I can put the Christmas tree up, but I am also rearranging the house so DD#2 can move into the family room. I will be trying to figure out how to put the furniture from the family room into the living room, and still have room to walk. I'm sure I'll be getting rid of a few things, which is no great problem. Our living room furniture is shot, so maybe by the time DD#2 is ready to move again, we might have enough money saved for some new furniture. I would imagine we'll at least be able to get some second-hand furniture then.

I still haven't managed to clear out the room that will be the nursery, so the idea of emptying out two rooms is a bit daunting. I have started moving my scrub fabric, and I've gotten more than half of it moved. I'm having to do something I never wanted to have to resort to, which is storing fabric under my bed :-( Right now I'm not making any scrubs, because I just don't have time, but I may in the future, and I also can use the fabric for quilting since almost all of it is 100% cotton. I have one shelf in the cabinet that holds the scrub fabric that is poly/cotton blends, but all the rest is cotton. Some of the fabrics that are not novelty prints, are being folded into mini-bolts and put in with my quilting fabrics now. I can only make myself fold a couple pieces of fabric at a time, since I got burnt out folding fabric this summer.

A lot of non-quilting things are taking big chunks of time right now, and it doesn't look like that will change anytime soon. I'll feel better if I get a few more projects finished up before the Juki gets packed away, but I can only do what I can do. Small quilts I can quilt on the Bernina, and for any really big quilts I can send those off to be quilted. Maybe 2011 will be the year I get a quilt finished for our bed!

Chunky Churndashes for the Grandtwins!

I finished the Chunky Churndash quilt tops for the grandtwins tonight. They will be getting other quilts later, but these are flannel and warm, and I should have them quilted by next week, so these will be ready when they arrive. This top one with the purple background is for Serenity.

Here is the one for Lucius. I was using these blocks I had already made on my flannel busting spree, but I tried to make them look a little alike by using the striped sashing and borders. Their next quilts will be in the samurai/geisha theme of the nursery, and they'll be a bit larger. These quilts are just a couple of warm ones to get them through winter. (As wintery as southern AZ gets, anyway) The pattern for the Chunky Churndashes can be found at www.quiltville.com. Bonnie K Hunter is very generous with her patterns.

I did get a few HST's done for step 2 of the RRCB mystery quilt. I finished maybe 1/4 of them, or a little more. I am so glad I used the Accuquilt cutter to cut the HST's. No dog ears to trim off, and they are going together so easily! I'm doing the mystery quilt as leaders and enders while I try to get some other projects together. Now that these two quilt tops are together, I'll go back to some others I left in some stage of assembly. I think I have three quilt tops in rows, and another that just needs borders. If I can get those to at least completed top stage, I'll be doing the happy dance for sure ;-)

Roll, Roll, Cotton Boll Step 1

I just cannot resist a Bonnie Hunter Mystery! I've only missed one since I started following her a few years ago. This newest mystery is called, as the title of this post indicates, Roll, Roll, Cotton Boll (which shall hereafter be referred to as RRCB which is much shorter to type ;-) I switched up all the colors, but I did get step one finished, and step 2 is cut. I am babysitting four full days this weeks, so not too much sewing time, but I'm figuring I will get step 2 done before step 3 comes out on Friday. Thankfully, I had the correct die for my Accuquilt cutter for step 2, so it didn't take long at all to get it all cut.

Since any of you who read this blog with any regularity know I never work on just one thing, I am also working on quilts for the grandtwins, these are the smaller flannel quilts they are getting. The center of Serenity's is almost done, and I have the rows of Lucius' assembled. I have a stack of stuff to make for the grandtwins, and the only thing I have made is some burp rags. I keep telling them to stay inside Mommy because Nana is not ready! Of course, I am also working on a couple of secret Christmas projects too.

I thought I would get quite a bit of time to sew over the weekend, since there were leftovers to eat, but as I was working on my Christmas surprise, my walking foot broke :-( I called all over town, and no one had one in stock. I even went to one place because they said they had one that might work. I told them I needed a high shank foot, and what they showed me was not a standard foot at all. My Juki can use Janome high shank feet, but this was something I've not seen before. It wouldn't have fit any of my machines, and they all take different feet. I ordered TWO new Janome walking feet online so I'd have a spare. My Christmas projects are on hold until the new walking feet get here. I did finish one project, with the guide duct taped to the original Juki walking foot. I really dislike the Juki walking foot. It is extremely noisy and cheap, and no place for a quilting guide to be attached. Of course, it was a Janome walking foot that broke, so I don't know what that says for it either. My Bernina walking foot is my favorite, and I have walking feet for all my machines, but of course, it only fits my Bernina, and I can't work on this project on the Bernina. Well, I could, but I'm not going to. It would be a nightmare! I paid for quick shipping, so the new feet should be here before I actually have a day off of babysitting.

Last week was CRAZY! The finishing touches were done to the remodeled bathroom. DD#3 and DSIL moved in on Wednesday. On Thursday I had 24? people here for Thanksgiving dinner. We found out that DS the Elder will probably be moving to Texas, and that will mean DD#2 will be moving back in temporarily (they share an apartment right now) It was a fun week, it was exciting, and it was nuts!