Recent finishes

I'm settling in here pretty well.  I'm still waiting for a call to return to working but am sewing and getting other things done until then.  I've finished two quilt tops - no photos yet - and three quilts.  Nancy Drew was bound and sent off to its new home last week:

I also finished two other quilts that Laura at Star City Stitchery quilted for me:  a green and white jellyroll scrap quilt she did in a Baptist Fan pattern ... 

And my Lily Ashbury Summer House jelly roll quilt that was made from the free pattern that Moda released with Kate Spain's Good Fortune line (you can get the pattern here).  Laura quilted this with a Sunflower pattern she had used on my previous quilt, Spanish Treasure.

The sun really helps the eye see the quilting patterns on these quilts.

In the move I came across those stray Quiltmaker 100 Blocks tester blocks I had made and blogged about as part of my giveaway for Volume 6.  Volume 8 hit the stands this past week, that's how long ago that was!  And I never did anything with those blocks.  Well, the bee I've joined has a box for random blocks - take or give - and I think they will go in there.

The bee meets tonight so I'd better get ready to go.  Just wanted to mention that I'm still here, still sewing.

Inspiration Everywhere

I've jumped right in, both feet first, to life since the move.  As a natural introvert, it's rare for me to schedule lots of things during one week, but last week was that week ... I had four events I considered myself committed to attending, and then my husband squeezed in a fifth.  By yesterday, I was worn out and cut the final one short, and today I didn't even want to get out of my pajamas.  I can't do this when I'm working full time, since leaving the house and engaging with people requires energy, often my sewing time is, for me, time to charge my batteries to full strength.

However, I wanted to do so many of these things.  One was an appointment about getting back to work, one was the local quilt guild meeting, one was my sorority alumnae chapter.  In between those things I ran errands to the post office, worked out, found a couple of local fabric stores, and house hunted with my husband, as well as meeting friends for drinks another night.  For most extroverts, that's a normal life, but for me, that's full speed and can't be sustained for long.

It was good though.  The guild was quite an experience - like walking into a convention center after Star Quilters.  So much going on all around, and an amazing speaker.  I hadn't known who it was going to be when coming in, but in one area I saw a setup with fabric and quilts and thought, "wow, that looks a lot like Paula Nadelstern's work; I wonder who she inspired?"  Well, it WAS Paula Nadelstern, and her presentation was entrancing.  She was funny and candid, and kept me glued to my seat for an hour.  One of the quilts she brought in person was this latest one, called Service for Eight:

I don't know that I could ever take on a project like she works on, despite her assurances that she stinks at math and can't sew very well.  But it was still something that stayed with me.

On Saturday I went to the Nasher Art Museum where one of the exhibitions was on philanthropist Doris Duke's Shangri La and the extensive documentation of her acquistions and construction of the home based upon her inspiration by Islamic art.  The pieces were amazingly intricate, and the photography was breathtaking in its color and texture:

I found myself so inspired by the patterns in the pieces that I wanted to buy the book to be able to design my own quilt based on some of the pieces.  The appliqued tent panels shown here on the dining room wall were particularly amazing, as was her clothing that was on display.  These photos don't even begin to do the designs justice and it was wonderful to be able to examine them close up.


At any rate, my own work hasn't been quite this inspired, but I'm working on it.  I've joined a guild bee which meets tomorrow evening, and then my calendar is quite empty until the weekend.

Move is now imminent

And I will confess:  my stress level is through the roof.  Let's take a look at how things are unfolding, shall we?

This past weekend, my husband and I had a wonderful weekend away at a B&B which was a wedding gift we finally redeemed more than 18 months after the wedding.  It couldn't have been more relaxing.  Then first thing Monday morning, off he went for his work week in Raleigh.

Monday, 9/23:  I took the cat to the vet to be declawed.  No, I didn't want to do this, but he loves shredding carpet and as long as we don't own the place, that is a big no-no.  In the afternoon, I met someone at the dog park who was interested in adopting our big 75-lb anxiety-ridden dog whom we JUST got to believe that we won't abandon him.  I met this person because now we have to abandon him.  Not only would no apartment take a dog as big as him, but he hates being enclosed and would lose it if he couldn't spend a lion's share of every day outside.  Monday evening, the dog park woman emailed to say she probably isn't ready for a dog in her life yet after all.  Sigh.

Tuesday, 9/24:  Picked up the cat from the vet and have been trying to keep him medicated, quiet, and not climbing.  I didn't realize how many things he climbs on in our house until I had to keep him off of them.  He was bleeding when he came out of his carrier too, so cleaning up after him was necessary.  He's been staying in a little storage area with linoleum in our basement and seems groggy but okay.  I also called the movers and got them on the schedule after my husband's company okayed the estimate.  I also got the scanned lease from the apartment company and had to print, sign, scan and return along with an image of my ID and proof of renter's insurance.

Wednesday, 9/25:  Today I've been calling DirecTV, Verizon, Frontier Communications, power company, etc., etc. to get service moved, connected or disconnected as appropriate.  I've been making appointments to see local professionals a last time or to pick up records to take to new people in Raleigh (like my mammogram images).  And I've started making other lists so I don't manage to forget something important.

Thursday, 9/26:  We have a house showing scheduled for 5:30 so my day will be spent cleaning around the animals, then loading them both into the car and disappearing with them for about ninety minutes.  We don't have recycling pickup here so I'll probably also take the garbage can full of glass we recycle up to the one bin about 20 miles away.  I also need to go to the post office to file a whole bunch of mail forwarding orders (don't ask).  Then I'll pack for the weekend.

Friday, 9/27 - Monday 9/30:  Going to my dad's house to spend the weekend with the kids and see my husband again, who will be driving up separately.  I'll have to take both animals with me, since dog doesn't have a new home and cat's healing needs to continue to be monitored.  I'll have to leave the house pristine in case it needs to be shown.  Remind me to take anything my husband might need for another week in hotels in Raleigh, and probably most of the contents of the freezer to keep and prepare at my dad's since we cook big meals there for him and the kids.  The weekend will wind down Monday while I stay an extra day to watch my son play soccer for his middle school varsity team in the afternoon, then a five-hour drive back home with the animals.

Tuesday, 10/1:  This is my day to make sure I have all my ducks in a row before movers come to pack and load.  They'll be doing most of the packing but I still would like to move various things around so they don't get forgotten, and maybe pack a few items myself.  Remember, we're only moving about half the house into the apartment; the rest will stay furnished and staged until it sells. I'll also do all my laundry from the weekend and pack a new bag for the move.  The dog will HAVE to have a place in the shelter (we adopted him from there so they have a guarantee to take him back but haven't had room) or a foster family to go to from here no later than this day or the next.

Wednesday, 10/2:  Movers arrive bright and early.  Thankfully my husband insisted the company pay for the packing so I don't have to do it all again when I just did it all about six months ago.  I will focus on cleaning the place to leave it for an unknown period of time and making sure we don't forget anything, since it's a six-hour round trip to come back for it.  I'm keeping my fingers crossed that my husband can take off work to join me for this day.

Thursday, 10/3:  Movers arrive at apartment in Raleigh, so we'll have to pick up keys before then.  With luck, power and internet will have been activated right on schedule and we'll have both by evening.

Friday, 10/4:  Unpacking and getting settled; DirecTV arrives for installation in the afternoon.  I'll probably have to find a grocery store and unpack the kitchen so we can be cooking by the weekend.

Saturday, 10/5:  The local quilt guild participates in something called "Heritage Day" with an auction and boutique to benefit a local park restoration project, and I'd love to make it there if we're unpacked enough.  I think my cabin fever will be running high by then so if I power through with unpacking we should be good to go enjoy a nice day in our new city.  Come Monday morning, my job search will have to take center stage as I map my return to the land of the productively employed.

I am happy to report that my darling husband made sure to get us an apartment with plenty of space for my own sewing room, which will be part of what is loaded on the truck on Tuesday.  He knows too well that he doesn't want to live with me if I don't have my fabric and machine to turn to when I need to de-stress.  I am also excited to try to attend my first meeting of the local guild later in October.  These things are what I'm looking forward to in order to power through the next week, including the sad farewell to our dog.  With luck, nothing will go horribly awry with the plan.

Guild Round Robin

I had mentioned in my last post that I couldn't post photos of several of the things I'd been doing since they were part of our Guild's Round Robin.  Well, this past Monday night we finally had the great reveal and it was very exciting to see what had become of everyone's quilt blocks, including mine.

I had waited until the very last moment to decide to participate for two reasons:  1) I was uncertain about how my skills would hold up in this very talented and creative group of people, and 2) our upcoming move to Raleigh had no certain date as of the time I had to decide to join.  But my friend Kitty agreed to mail me anything back and forth and encouraged me to participate, so I did.  I threw in this block from my Quiltmaker testing, Pippa Armbrester's "Reflecting Cityscapes" block:

As with all blocks from Quiltmaker's 100 Blocks, it measured 12.5" square unfinished.  I don't do a lot of modern quilting and so I just threw a note into the bag that told the ladies to have fun!  The finished product knocked my socks off:

(This photo is from Susan Kraterfield's blog as she put on the last border and documented her work on the three blocks she put borders on.)  Each added their own note to mine.  First, Kathy Wickham decided it was too early for borders and so she pulled a copy of the magazine and added a building on each end of my block. Victoria Person had it next and decided it looked somewhat art deco and put on the beveled border at the top right area of the block.  Susan worked on it last and built on Victoria's art deco theme.  I love how it turned out.

I don't know what I'll do with it next - it's about the size of a bed pillowcase now but I think I'll turn it into a wall hanging.

I have two quilt tops going to my long arm quilter next week and am working on a few other things so I'll try to post again next week.  Right now we're in a holding pattern - the house is on the market and our lease in Raleigh doesn't start until the end of September, so I'm just enjoying the time off and home alone, getting in as much sewing as I can before the move and my unavoidable return to work.

still chugging along

There are times like these recent months when I am so grateful for quilting - my fabric stash, my machines, and the space to sew.  We've just wrapped up another summer with the kids here, all while preparing to sell our house and find a new home in Raleigh, North Carolina.  If I didn't have my sewing room to hide in every time I needed a shot to restore my sanity, I think I'd be even more of a wreck than I am.

Much of my time spent this summer was on work I can't show yet.  I participated in the guild's round robin, in which each month found me with someone else's quilt block and the challenge to put a border on it.  It really helped me become more comfortable with the math of planning borders, thanks in part to my use of the book, The Border Workbook by Janet Kime.  I have an older version of the book, but here is a picture of the cover of the edition being sold now at amazon.com:

We will do the reveal at the September meeting, after which I hope to link to some of the photos on the guild's website, as well as finally see my own block after three rounds of borders.  I used the Reflecting Cityscapes block I made as part of Quiltmaker 100 Blocks testing.

This was a more modern block than I'm used to making, so I'll be curious to see what the other members did with it.

Other than this, I finished the Papillon quilt that I had begun from a charm pack for my demonstration this past fall.  This was a layout using Monica Solorio-Snow's Magic Hourglass tutorial, and just sewing together the pieces differently.  I did some free motion quilting, some in clear nylon thread and some in pale pink silk thread, and I like the way it turned out.  It was sent off to a dear friend as something of a comfort quilt.

I also basted and began quilting the Nancy Drew quilt.  While I was working on it, I began watching the 1938 Nancy Drew movies starring Bonita Granville.  It all felt very vintage.  I still have a little quilting to do in the blocks but then it will be finished and ready for binding.

I've also begun the simple log cabin I'd been planning on making ever since I bought Tula Pink's Neptune honey bun ages ago.  It takes me a few hours to whip up about six blocks at a time and they will go together nicely.

I've also started two different quilts using only Me & My Sister fabrics, and a Dresden Plate quilt with Lily Ashbury fabrics:

This has been done using machine applique, a technique I still need to get more comfortable with, and next to work on will be a floral border using the same techniques.  Since finding Moda Bella solids at Thousands of Bolts for only $4.95/yard, I've invested in the Bella solids swatch chart to be able to match all my favorite Moda fabric lines.  Hopefully in the future you'll see me working with backgrounds other than white!

Other than that, I still have a considerable fabric stash to work through.  This picture is just some of my precuts!

The house will have a "for sale" sign in front of it just after Labor Day weekend, and we have a signed lease on an apartment in Raleigh as of the end of September.  I'm grateful that my husband got us a three-bedroom apartment so that I could have a room devoted to my sewing.  We will need to pack up and store most of our belongings once the house sells (assuming it sells before our six month lease is up) but there is no way I could go six months without my quilting supplies.  We are still looking for a more permanent home in Raleigh, but after a full week of looking at houses there, are now strongly considering building.  We'll see how long it takes to sell the house in Roanoke and where we stand after that happens.  I will also need to find a job there and we want to take that into consideration before we make a permanent commitment to a home.

One thing at a time, however.  And on a Sunday evening home alone, that thing will be sewing.

A long hiatus

I know it's been MONTHS - really, half a year - since I last showed up around these parts.  On one hand, I have no excuse.  I'm still not working so I have plenty of time to blog.  But on the other hand, I'm not working, so I don't spend a lot of time on the computer.

In that time, we've packed up a house, sold it, bought a new one, moved, and unpacked.  I love my sewing space in the new house.  I helped our quilt show committee by doing the program for the show, completed (and messed up) my challenge quilt, and won second prize for it anyway.  The theme was, "how do I celebrate quilting" and the size was 20" along one side by 13" along the other (for 2013).  This was my entry:

The half square triangles around the edge were blue and red before I tried to remove some fabric bleed from the white and sucked pretty much all the color out of the quilt.  But I guess I was the only one who knew the before and after!

I put four other quilts in the show too but nothing that won any ribbons.  After seeing the quilts that did have ribbons hanging on them, I decided to start a few new projects.

Also, I taught a class based on this quilt by Cotton Way at my local quilt shop:

For the first time ever, I walked out of a quilt shop with more money than I walked in!  I'll be teaching it again in June.

Finally, I won a great prize from McCall's Quilting's Facebook page:  a fat quarter bundle and tote which was a wonderful surprise:

I completed a few projects and started a few new ones also, including some great blocks with a charm pack of Moda's "Get a Clue with Nancy Drew":

And I took a class to try out the Learning Curve ruler, which was a lot of fun playing with curves:

There are a few more projects in the works as well, and more fabric in my stash than I can shake a stick at.

However, the biggest news, which has me frozen in a kind of paralysis that just gets me from day to day, is that even though we are still getting settled in this new house, my husband's job has been relocated three hours away to Raleigh, NC, so we are going to have to move.  Again.  Very soon.  Until we made a day trip there over Memorial Day weekend, I'd only ever been in the city once, so I'm a bit at a loss.  I'm just keeping myself sane playing with fabric and doing a little bit of sewing every day.

The kids will be here off and on throughout the summer so hopefully I'll keep my sanity through the move.  If I manage to blog again before it's all done, I'll be amazed.