Wednesday, April 30, 2014

Beginnings of another Dogwood Quilt

First off, I have to say to anyone who is like I was, afraid to link up with other blog parties, just do it!  You meet so many wonderful people, and those connections are what fuels our passion, and feeds my soul.  Maybe if we could get our politicians to A) quilt, and B) blog about it and C) have linky parties, we'd not have yet another very upsetting situation with Ukraine.  But I digress.

I also wanted to give a nod to my darling Avanté.  She sat for 4.5 months in our basement, freezing her butt off in the record-setting cold and snow-filled winter of Essex County/Detroit area, and when I loaded the Dogwood quilt, threaded the Isacord thread, put in a pre-wound bobbin of The Bottom Line, and did not even oil her, just checked tension, she sewed like a dream.  Unreal.  I must write a note to Handi Quilter and tell them!

I have a new machine in my basement:
My daughters and my husband always name their cars.  I'm not into that; I name my quilts.  However, I've named this oil-filled heater Kenny.  He radiates quite a cozy supply of heat, and the wheels allow me to place him right next to me, whether I'm sewing or cutting.  I picked him up Monday morning at a Cash Converters store (aka pawn shop - my first time ever inside one, egad) for $20, with a $5 6-month warranty added on!  Pretty good.  He was FILTHY, most likely came from a smokers' home because he was so yellow and dusty and dirty.  I spent over an hour on Monday washing him, Lysol-wiping him, and he's come out looking brand new.  Everything to help take the chill out of the basement.  Oh for my in-floor heat like I had in my sewing room in Alberta....

I'm onto another of Cynthia's scrap quilts.  This one is #4.  I guess that's the beauty of hopping on the quilt along late:  I don't have to do the quilts in order!  I love the colours in the dogwood quilt #1, but it ended up going too purple.  Maybe should have called it Dreaming of Wisteria, as I did see some of that along the way too.  Too late now.  So this one is going to be pink and green and white, and we'll see how she turns out.
LOOOVE this fabric
I've never cut into it, and I'm sure it's 7 years old, maybe more.  I had kaleidoscopes in mind when I bought it.  Think it's RJR from what I can see on the selvedge.


Ironed, and ready to slice into.  I took this to show you the organized chaos of my cutting/pressing table last night.  Clockwise from the top left you see:  candles burning for scent but also for heat, lol; Caesar salad and wine (THAT close to fabric?? I took my chances, as I only got home from yoga at 7, took Rocco for his 15-minute after-supper walk, and decided to eat and work); nail polish to remind me each day to put on another coat of Duri, which works SO well; a small pile of 2 1/2" squares for who knows what, but I'm trying to organize as well as make a serious dent in my scraps; growing pile of pink squares for the current quilt, stacked in sets of 13, so I'll need 5 piles to equal 65 squares; fabric ready to be cut; a few green squares started; a growing pile of strips for another scrap quilt of Cynthia's; and finished rolled up scraps left!  I found a often had a couple inches left on the side of a scrap piece, so I started cutting them off into 11" long strips with another scrap quilt in mind.

130  - 4 1/2" squares done!

It took me 2 hours to cut all the green ones.  That's crazy.  Oh well.  I was getting that high that I get when playing with fabric.  A dizzy and bubbling-up excited feeling.  I feel like I'm painting with fabric.  I love putting the different shades of the same colour together, looking at the way the values play across a quilt top.  Yes, I have a plethora of scrap and pieces of fabric in 1/4 or 1/3 or 1/2 yard cuts, but it's my palette, and I won't apologize.  Moreover, it does help to insulate the house, snort.

And I have had two brainwaves, one of which I acted upon, for yet another scrap quilt, this one of my own design.  Here it is in the baby stages.
It will have red and blue blocks in it yet.  Who knows, maybe I'll write it up as my very own quilt along!  And my other brainwave was for another woven quilt, this one in scraps of oranges and greens, with a special person in mind.  'nuff said for now.

Morning walk time, and then basement corner time!

4 comments:

  1. Glad you found me, it's great to make friends all across the world and next door

    ReplyDelete
  2. You have lovely insulation :) Have fun playing with your stash scraps.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I want Avante's secret for surviving freezing cold winters. Like her, I froze my butt off; like her, I did not receive oil to loosen my winter-stiff joints (LOL I sound old - hey! like you! bahahaha), though I'm willing to bet I have the same tension as she does. BUT one big difference - I will never "sew like a dream", so Avante and I will forever differ.

    ReplyDelete
  4. OMG you are so witty. I love it. LOL

    And after I took a second look at this post, I noticed that the fabric that I love so much has PURPLE in it still! And I was trying to get away from it! Maybe my subconscious is having a love affair with purple? What is that book or line, "When I Am Old I Shall Wear Purple"? But I am NOT old! And I don't wear (OMG I AM today!!!) purple!! Sigh. It's menopause, I swear. And Blogger or Google got me somehow (that or my idiocy) as I'd typed this comment but when I hit 'publish' it just disappeared. If there's two after I hit publish, it's not my fault!

    ReplyDelete

I wholeheartedly appreciate you taking the time to leave a comment, as they make my day! I answer every one by personal email. :-) Unless... you are a "no-reply" blogger, which can occur for a few reasons. You can get around that by writing out your email within your comment so that I can answer you.