a sewing night

I left the office right on time yesterday to head home, get comfy and start sewing.  The first thing looking at me when I entered my sewing room was, of course, Ready Set Star!  I rearranged it a few more times and I think I've found a layout I like:

And so it sits until I start trying to piece it together.

I wandered around my sewing room for a bit trying to decide what I really wanted to work on.  Baron von Quilthausen wasn't threaded for Dark Star, so I passed on that.  Whatever it was, unless it was Dark Star or Ready Set Star!, it was going to require some cutting.  And then I remembered that I received my Block of the Month for the Civil War Chronicles series.  Remember that?  This is the finished picture:

And this is the partially constructed top:

I also have the four larger blocks in the corners done but not photographed.  This month I received one of the two smaller blocks that go into the corners and so last night I cut them and began piecing.  I had to finish one in its entirety before I could call it a night.

It measures 7 1/4" with seam allowances, so it's definitely smaller than most of what I've been sewing for this quilt.  I was happy with my seams on this, but is just so much bulk on the underside - even with snipping off the dog ears - that I went a little nutty with the Best Press when I was finished.

Frankly, I'm surprised how fast the year has flown by - this BOM is almost at an end.   Each month I enjoy getting the squishy packet in the mail, reading the story, and admiring the fabrics.  I really believe that undertaking the entire project as a whole would have been too much for me right now with all the other junk I have going on, quilting and otherwise.  I'm glad I spent the money to do this since I'm really enjoying it and I'm actually keeping current with it.

Speaking of stories, yesterday I bought and downloaded Tori Amos' "Night of Hunters" album and I have been unable to stop listening to it.  I even put it on my phone so that I could sew with headphones and not miss calls.  From Tori's website:  "Night of Hunters is a 21st century song cycle that finds Tori drawing on themes from Satie, Granados, Chopin and other great composers. It tells a modern love story that is only unraveled after a journey to Ireland's mythic past. Guests include such esteemed players as The Apollon Musagete Quartet and the Berlin Philharmonic clarinet soloist Andreas Ottensamer."  Her 11-year-old daughter Natashya also sings on this release.  I love both Tori Amos and classical music and frankly, I was worried that whatever she released next would be a disappointment after Midwinter Graces.  Each of the songs is inspired by some classical piece - Wikipedia has the list - and I will be listening to this one compulsively for quite some time. 

Today I'll work from home in the afternoon so that the plumber can come fix our hot water heater.  I wish "working from home" meant sewing, but not quite.  My Honey and I have plans tonight when he gets home but if he heads off to man night later as is typical for his Thursdays I might do a little more work on these Civil War Chronicles blocks.

reporting in

I gave the demonstration on needle-turn appliqué at quilt guild this past Monday night.  Even though I thought I was fully prepared, I was nervous ... and more so when I saw that the woman who could probably be considered our guild's resident expert on hand appliqué in the audience.  I prepared a handout which made it to the guild's website along with a few pictures (I have no future as a hand model!).  I felt like I had a lot to cover in a very short time.  To me, the big challenge in hand appliqué is preparation of the work.  How do you put the pieces where they belong?  How do you mark the lines on which you sew?  I tried to cover a few ways to answer each of these questions as well as demonstrate the actual stitch technique (including points), but I'm not quite sure if it was too much information in too short a time to be helpful.  I am glad that I did it, though, because in researching the presentation I learned about back-basting, which can best be explained in this link from All About Applique.  It may permanently replace the freezer paper technique that I've been using.  Considering I first learned needle-turn appliqué in a half-day seminar taught by Piece O'Cake's Becky Goldsmith and Linda Jenkins in Lancaster, Pennsylvania years ago, I won't feel too bad if I couldn't sum it up in 20 minutes.

My Honey left on a trip yesterday morning and won't return until Thursday.  Yesterday I worked out after work (I am up to twice a week and my mile run is now around 14 minutes) and then went to the grocery store before returning home to remember his words yesterday morning that we had no hot water in the shower (I often shower or bathe at night and wanted to last night!).  Sure enough, the best I could get out of the tap was lukewarm, which made for a very quick and uncomfortable shower this morning.  Luckily we have a shower in the ladies' room at the office, which I will take advantage of tomorrow morning before the plumber comes tomorrow afternoon.  However, we have no electrical outlets in our ladies' room, which means no hair washing (and drying).  Ugh.  If only I had had the foresight to bring a towel to work today.

On the bright side, his being gone means I can do some sewing tonight.  I would like to rearrange those Ready Set Star! blocks in a few other ways, sew a block for my son's quilt, and maybe piddle a bit on some other projects.  Stay tuned for photos

If you aren't already aware, Quiltmaker's 100 Blocks, volume 4 is being released and the quilting blog world is talking about it.  Go to Quiltmaker's blog and get in on the fun to win an issue or other prizes!  I was fortunate enough to have won volumes 2 and 3 this past spring and one of my UFOs is from those issues using blocks designed by Quiltmaker's own Denise Starck.  She has now created an adorable paper-pieced hat:

to go with her earlier blocks already planned for my quilt - the purse and shoes!

Of course, I only have one pair of shoes done so far but seeing her hat has gotten me itching to get back to it.

layout fun

Most of my time lately has been working to prepare a few blocks for my needleturn applique demo at Quilt Guild on Monday night.  We will be away all weekend and since Sunday night's NFL Steelers-Ravens showdown is a big one for us (being on opposite sides of that fence), nothing will get done once we get home if it's not happening in front of the TV.

But I did manage to trim up the Ready Set Star! blocks and lay them out in a couple of different layouts according to Kimberly Einmo's book.

 I definitely like the "bursting" ones better and will fiddle with them some more next week.  They did not work out so uniformly for me - probably because I was sloppy when cutting on the 45° angle (those pinked edges of the jelly roll are always enough to mess me up - line up on the inner points?  outer points?  split the difference?) - so I'm hoping that there won't be too much headache for me when it comes time to sew them together.  Still, the fabrics were fun to play with and it's such a happy Christmas-y quilt.

Yesterday I emailed my Honey a summary of our schedule through the end of the year.  Wow!  We have something happening every single weekend, and most of them are away from home.  It's a good thing I finished most of my gift sewing already since I don't know when I'd squeeze it in.

Monday again

My Honey got home around 6:30 last night and I was almost done with my sewing to-do list by that time, even though I turned down an invitation to go to a wine festival with his sister and BIL to make that deadline.  I posted pics several times from my phone throughout the weekend.  I mailed off five 4Patches4Hope blocks on Saturday.  I finished Kaleidoscope Saturday morning - and thanks for the comment, Karen - more on comments below - and will probably drop it and Jelly Girl to my longarm quilter today.  I started a new project I'm going to call, "Ready, Set, Star!" - a combination of the "Ready Set Snow!" fabrics and the Lone Starburst pattern from Kimberly Einmo's new book, "Jelly Roll Quilt Magic."  I have all my star segments pieced and it was a practice of trial and error to get the points to match nicely, but the no-set-in-seams background is a breeze!  I could easily have worked on this project all weekend long but I did just little bits of it in between "must do" projects like Christmas gifts and the applique demo I'll be doing at my guild in two weeks - I want to have one finished block and one in progress for that evening. I cut more fabric for Dark Star and pieced one more block.  But I stayed up til around 3 AM both nights in order to get as much done as I intended and am yawning this morning.  Tonight won't be early either since the Ravens play Monday Night Football and I will tune in for the game.  But I have a whole pile of handwork that needs to be done which is leftover from the weekend's efforts, and will post more pics afterwards.

I also have "Ghastlies" fabric arriving in the mail, hopefully this week - and just today discovered a "Ghastlies" blog hop happening this week.  Check it out - maybe there will be some inspiration!

As for comments - I am grateful whenever I get them.  I wish Blogger was easier about letting me make comments to my own blog than it is - whenever I try to leave a comment on my own blog, Blogger tells me that I do not have permission, and I have to log out and log back in.  Every time.  But I know, from reading so many quilt blogs myself in Google Reader every day how special it is to have someone actually make the effort to leave a comment. So if I don't reply to your comment, or if you don't see a public response to a comment left for me, please don't take it personally.  I may just get around to it yet.  And I really hope Blogger fixes that glitch with the login soon!

Everyone have a great week!  My Honey is home all week so I don't know how much sewing I'll get done, but I hope I work a little bit before headed off to see my son this weekend.