Yes, but can he dance?

Many of you know that I don't watch television. As in, "we finally have cable but I still don't now how to turn on the television set." I watch television series DVDs when I can get them from the library and I occasionally watch hulu.

Even though I, according to one family member, live under a rock, I've heard of the television show House, MD. Hugh Laurie is a well-known television actor. He was also the voice of Dr. Cockroach in Monsters vs Aliens.

What I did not know, and what you may not know either, is that Hugh Laurie is a novelist. I checked his book out of the library and absolutely fell. in. love. It is an incredibly witty spy novel; every minute I spent not finishing that book was pure torture. Over 95% of the books that I read are audiobooks. This book was actually made of paper. If I had my choice, this would have been available on audio book, with Hugh Laurie reading it himself. Even without getting my own way, I enjoyed my time immeasurably.


I've heard rumors that Mr. Laurie has a forthcoming book. Please, oh please, let them be true!

Design Wall Monday

Head on over to Judy's blog to see what everyone else is doing.

Sunday Stash Report

Stash used this week: 12.25 yards

Stash used this year: 59 yards!

Head on over to Judy's blog to see how everyone else is doing.

Friday finish -- Sarah's quilt

Our house, instead of emptying, seems to be getting fuller. Our youngest is away at college, but she comes home for breaks. Our son graduated from college and works as a teacher, but he and his wife live with us now. My daughter-in-love has a dear friend who has quickly become one of the family. She spends a great deal of time here and is quite the quilt admirer. She knows I give quilts away for high school graduations, weddings, and babies. Well, she graduated a few years ago, isn't getting married, and no babies are in the near future but she desperately wants a quilt. Conveniently, she turned 21 recently. Here's her quilt:



and the back:



I would tell you that the yellow was a design choice, but the truth is that I used every. single. inch. of the turquoise fabric and it still wasn't large enough for the quilt. Quilts that are 72x80 are difficult to back!!!!

Now, for the details:

72x80
used 90 10-inch squares (cut from scraps)
4 yards turquoise backing + 1/2 yard yellow

She loved it!

And we love having her at our house!

Snowbound

Last weekend my husband and I were supposed to be on vacation in Washington, DC. We cancelled a week before, just because the thought of going away was stressful. Then I got sick. We felt kind of smart for cancelling our trip, since I wouldn't have been able to go anyway. Then Washington, DC got hit with a paralyzing snowstorm and we felt positively brilliant for cancelling our plans!

The snow has caught up with us, however, and we are home today expecting 8-12 inches of snow. It's not a huge deal, and snow days are fun even for grownups!

I am still working, but not a full-speed today. If you have some spare time, like I do, check out Quilter blogs. It's a wealth of quilty information! Warning: only do this if you have spare time. You could spend hours and hours looking at all of the great blogs.

Design Wall Monday

Once again, I'm a bit late. Here's my design wall:





The brown blocks from last week were pieced into a quilt top during the Super Bowl. I added some applique flower blocks that I recently unearthed while excavating my sewing room. I think they are too cute to let lie and will probably make more.




Head on over to Judy's blog to see what everyone else is doing.

Sunday Stash Report

used this week: 9 yards
used this year: 46.75

Head on over to Judy's blog to see how everyone else is doing.

Friday Finish -- Ruth's quilt

My daughter-in-love's mother recently had surgery. I pulled out a partially-finished quilt top and made it hers:



The pattern is from Open a Can of Worms by Debbie Caffrey. I think I cut enough strips to make another quilt top, so you just might see another one of these sometime soon. Or next year. Maybe the year after that.

used this week: 9 yards

used this year: 46.75

I've decided.

For about a week now, I've been considering getting sick. My son is sick. My husband is sick -- I can't imagine why. It looks like fun.

Some days I thought about giving in, and other days I decided I was too busy to be sick just now.

This morning, however, I woke up and made a decision: I am sick.

Send tea and toast and Tylenol and tissues if you like.

I'll let you know when I decide to feel better.

Design Wall Monday

My design wall as of Monday:

Similar to last week, but I added a few strips of miniature Seminole piecing. There are more pieces in each of those strips than there were in my last 4 quilts! Please notice that although the strips are mostly brown, there is some green in there. I'm gradually working my way up to color.

Head on over to Judy's blog to see what everyone else is doing.

Sunday Stash Report

Stash used this week: 9.5 yards
Stash used this year: 37.25 yards


Yay, me!

Head on over to Judy's blog to see how everyone else is doing.

Attention Long Island Quilters!

I'm teaching a longarm retreat on Long Island in April. Take a look!

Friday finish -- Bill and Lilliean

My husband spends his free time playing video games. Some people think of video games as an anti-social activity, but that's not the case at all. We regularly get together to play video games with his buddies, not to mention all of the time we spend rocking out, as a family, to Guitar Hero or Rock Band. But I digress.

This quilt is for one of my husband's video game buddies:

And a pieced back:

Mrs. Video Game Buddy really loved it!

I gave it to her when the last time we visited them and the reaction was hi-larious. I'm often the only non-engineer, non-MBA, non-technical person in the crowd and this was definitely one of those times. There were five other people with probably 13-15 advanced degrees between them but the first reaction was "Where did you buy this?" followed by "You made this?" Now, all of the folks in the room save me make semi-conductors, for crying out loud, but they were impressed with a quilt. Like, seriously impressed. Lilliean couldn't decide which side she liked better, front or back, and kept switching it around.

All of this for a scrap quilt. This is part of why I quilt.

Stash used this week: 9.5 yards

Stash used this year: 37.25 yards

We now resume our regular weather

Earlier this week we had some very unusual weather for January.

Welcome back, winter:

I've missed you.

Design Wall Monday

I'm a day late with this post, due to yesterday's emergency. A quick update: the rains ended last night instead of continuing on through tonight. We're so relieved!



The design wall now has 4 Topsy Turvy blocks, 1 new Ping block, and more blocks from my scrap nickel squares.

Looking at the photo, I realize that everything is BROWN! I need to assure you that I adore color and will work on some bright quilts, really soon.

Head on over to Judy's blog to see what everyone else is doing.

Q. When is a "finish" not a "finish"?

A. When it's really, really little.



My local quilt guild met last week and we made these darling wool pincushions. I think Mom just may receive this for her birthday!

Moving mountains?

No, but we moved a stream.

We love our stream. Imagine listening to the sound of wind in the trees and trickling water. It's blissful. And then there's today.

The winds are over 50 mph and inches of rain are falling. We live on a mountain, and water runs downhill...... We have a series of culverts above our house to divert water into our much-beloved stream. Sometimes the culverts are blocked or simply overloaded and the water meant for the stream comes down toward the house. That happened today.

My son's car had a foot of water under it, so we were shocked when that wouldn't start. The driveway flooded to the point that water was streaming in under the garage door. Since my driveway runs downhill from the garage doors, it takes a whole lot of water to back up into my garage. Like, in eight years, it's never happened. I guess there's a first time for everything.

Once the water hit the garage, I sent out an SOS and my hubby came home. We got all dressed up and headed outside. I dug a trench away from the house and hubby climbed to mountain to start clearing the culverts. It was a precious, precious moment when the culvert cleared and the water stopped pouring into my garage. I think I cried. Hard to tell since I was very, very wet already.

If you've never done this type of work, it's hard. And wet. And very very slippery. We both fell several times. I got hit on the head by a flying tree branch, but it wasn't too serious. This all will be funny in a week or two, but today? Notsomuch.

There are days I love my house and I hope to have one of those days really, really soon.

Here's my hubby, getting ready to attack another pile of debris so all the water out of the stream can flow freely in to the stream:



And here am I, on the way back into the house. If I show a picture of hubby soaking wet, I have to show one of me, as well:



We have at least another 36 hours before the water subsides. I need to rest up in case we have to go out and do this again. Wouldn't that be fun?

Time for a chai tea latte and some mindless quilting.

What a different an hour makes

One hour later:



And the water is coming in the garage. Ugh.

Design Wall Monday

I've been working hard in the studio, but today I have to work in the yard instead.

My normally trickling mountain stream is roaring (and flooding will continue for another 36-48 hours!):



This is a sure sign that I need to dig out my culverts:

I hope you are warm and dry and have electricity. So far, I have electricity.

Sunday Stash Report

Stash used this week: 4.5 yards

Stash used this year: 27.75 yards

Yay, me!

Head on over to Judy's blog to see how everyone else is doing.

Friday finish -- Round Robin

I am fortunate to work for a great company, Handi Quilter, and fortunate to work with a great bunch of Educators. We live very far apart from each other, but did a Round Robin quilt by mail.

I chose a black cotton lame and each of us quilted a row. The quilt was finished in March 2009, but I, per my usual, finished the binding last night:




This quilt is very, very, very difficult to photograph and looks much better in person. Each educator outdid themselves and the wool batting really helped each design pop! I will treasure this quilt forever.


Stash used this week: 4.5 yards
Stash used this year: 27.75 yards

Free is Good

I quilted a quilt for one of my favorite new designers, and The Quilter Magazine just published it. They are offering the pattern as a free download on their website. Check it out!

Senior Moment

Yesterday I thought of the perfect gift for my husband and today I cannot remember what it was. I was going to buy it at Amazon. That surely narrows it down, does it not?

Design Wall Monday

I took down all the Ping blocks from last week. You don't want to see the same design wall each and every week, do you?



I put up one Ping block that I finished last night. The pieced blocks are made from my nickel scraps. I'm ok with not buying new fabric, but not starting new projects is too much to ask!

Head on over to Judy's blog to see what everyone else is doing.

Sunday Stash Report

stash used this week: 10 yards
stash used year to date: 23.25 yards

17 days into the new year and I haven't purchased any fabric. It feels heroic, but c'mon, it's only been 17 days!

And I still haven't recovered from my recent shock.

Just ...... wow.

I've been nominated for MQX 2009 Machine Quilting Teacher-of-the-Year. So...... wow!

To vote, click here.

Friday finish -- Suzie's quilt

My daughter is a freshman in college and has a wonderful RA. Her RA won't let her call her that, however. Suzie is her friend/RA. Well, this friend/RA is getting a quilt:



with a pieced back:



I've shown several (maybe a dozen?) of this pattern over the last few years. Whenever my 2-inch square bucket overflows, I make one. It uses up my 3-1/2 inch neutral squares and my random 10-1/2 inch squares as well.

stash used this week: 10 yards

stash used year to date: 23.25 yards

What's missing?

I mentioned that I pieced all of my batting scraps together and used them in my niece's beau's quilt. Look at how much batting I have left:



I guess I'll have one less box in my studio. What's that I see in my studio? Floor? Who knew?

Suggestions? Opinions?

My dear daughter-in-law's mother is having surgery and I want to give her a quilt. I pulled this out of my "I started it but never finished it" pile.




It is currently 60x72 inches. The background fabric along the outside edge is yellow instead of white. Does it need a border for size? Or for the sake of the design?

Suggestions, please.

Design Wall Monday

This is my first week with an actual design wall. The wall above my desk was cluttered with posters, comics, cards, photos, and anything else that has caught my eye in the 8 years I've been in this house. Well, NO MORE! I took it all down, saved what was worth saving, and hung up a flannel-backed tablecloth with some thumbtacks.




The project on the wall is about three years old. It's called Ping and is an old BOM from Pinwheels.

Friday finish -- Matt's quilt

At our late Christmas celebration last weekend, my neice's beau received this quilt:



It's remarkably similar to this quilt and this quilt. They are all 60x72 inches and all quilted using Handi Quilter's Groovy Boards in the wide strips. I meandered next to the feathers, and used a ruler to quilt Xs in each small rectangle.

The blue fabrics were all scraps. The yellow check was purchased (last year so it counts as stash now) specifically for this quilt. The backing and binding were from stash. The batting was pieced from all those long leftover strips of batting that seem to multiply like rabbits in my studio.

I have a couple more of these quilts pieced, so be on the lookout for future Friday finishes.

I have a dear blog and real-life friend who would love this quilt. Part of me hoped my neice's boyfriend wouldn't like the quilt so I could give it to her, but the rest of me is glad he liked it.

Stash used this week: 9.25 yards
Stash used year to date: 13.25 yards

My new obsession

These didn't "pop" or "over" as much as other batches have, but my family was happy to eat them, just the same.

First Finish! -- Sharon's skirt

I have a very patient family. I rarely finish gifts on time and they are gracious to accept IOUs. I usually offer, "Your gift isn't done and you have three choices. You can:

1. Finish it yourself
2. Accept a gift card to the store of your choice or
3. Wait it out".

They always choose to wait it out.

My sister has been patient since her birthday in May! We met to celebrate a late Christmas this past weekend and I was finally able to give her a finished birthday present:



It's the Bohemian Skirt from Favorite Things. It's very fun to make. Pick out 4 one-yard cuts of your favorite fabrics and away you go. Warning: it uses tons of thread. As a quilter I have a ten-lifetimes supply of thread on large cones, but if you buy small spools I'd worry that one wouldn't be enough.

You may notice that this years finishes are tabbed "Friday finishes". Yes, I'm late already. I have a good excuse, though. I caught some crud that cut into my sewing/blogging time.

I'm toying with tracking how much yardage I use this year. I probably won't keep up with it all year, but for now.......

-4 yards!

2009 in photos

Some photos of the highlights of my 2009!

My first book was published!

I turned 40!

Son graduated from college.



Daughter graduated from high school.









Son got married!




Cruise to Canada.





Trip to Las Vegas.

Happy New Year!

Fifty Finishes cancelled due to illness

I've come down with something nasty and will not be able to finish. Maybe next year?

Happy New Year, everyone. I'll post again after the plague has passed.

Forty-Four!

I pieced this shop sample in my hotel room at the Vermont Quilt Festival last summer.

It's been hanging, unbound, in my local quilt shop ever since. Again, I pulled it off the wall to finish the binding so I'd have a chance at reaching my fifty finishes. I have no shame whatsoever.

Forty-Three!

I needed a quick gift a while back, so I quilted up a sheet of potholders. I cut them, sewed the binding to the front, finished two potholders and let the rest sit for many moons.

Since it's gift-giving season and I needed some more quick gifts, I pulled the stack of unfinished potholders out and bound them.

Aren't they cute?

Forty-two!

My husband is good friends with a young man at work and I'm friends with his young wife. (We find that very convenient.) We met them shortly after they married. I've always felt bad that I didn't give them a quilt for their wedding, so I'm giving them a quilt for Christmas. It won't be delivered until they come to our New Year's Eve party, so I was given a few days grace to finish it.



I'm sorry for the dark photo -- we were chasing daylight.


Does anyone have a copy of Thimberries Beginner's Luck book? I do, and I cannot count the number of quilts that I've made from it. All of this fabric was in my collection (stash is a dirty word). It was pieced quickly, quilted quickly, and bound by machine (gasp!).

Forty-one!

Last spring I went to Quilt Market in Pittsburgh with my friend who owns a quilt shop. She let me sit with her while she shopped for new fabrics. I ooh-ed and aah-ed over all the pretty colors, but my friend noticed extraordinary joy when I saw Birdie fabric from Moda and ordered the fabric for her shop!

Since I picked the fabric, I got to make the sample:

I pieced and quilt this around Thanksgiving, and it's hung on the shop wall, unbound ever since. Since nothing will deter me from finishing 50 quilts in 2009, I pulled it off the wall and bound it. That makes it officially finished, does it not?

Here's a close-up of why this is the happiest fabric on earth:

Forty! (Iike me)

Once upon a time, I made enough blue and white blocks to make five baby quilts. Quilts 1-4 have been quilted, bound, and given away over the years; quilt 5 has lain unnoticed in my studio for several years.

As I am striving to reach my goal of 50 quilts finished in 2009, I pulled this forlorn little quilt top out and finished it!

Thirty-nine (for the first time)

My daughter's friend has an absolutely adorable neice. I made a quilt for her birthday last year. Fortunately it was child-sized, or my daughter's friend would have stolen it and let her neice be quilt-less.

Since I finally finished my son's friends graduation quilts (after only 4 years), I'm working on my daughter's friend's quilts (only 6 months late). I reproduced the little girl's quilt in a person-sized manner.

It even has a cool purple spider-web back!

Eleven more projects to go this year. I'm still not sure if that's gonna happen, but I love the empty spaces in the sewing room as the projects head out the door!

Replacement Quilts

Five years ago, a lovely girl graduated from high school. At that time, I made her a quilt. About 5 minutes later, her mother stole that quilt from her. This lovely young lady is now in her own apartment, quiltless. My 38th finish of the year should rectify that situation.

I make this scrappy four-patch quilt whenever the 2-inch square bucket overflows.

It even has a scrappy back!

Thirty-Seven!

I finished this quilt a little while ago (notice, no snow in the background):

After it's lived it's life as a sample, my daughter has laid claim to it. "I don't want to keep it, Mom, I just kind of like it." Alrighty, then.

If you don't have fun saying Kokopelli.....

.... you're probably pronouncing it wrong.

This summer, my son got married (yay!). At the wedding, my husband's uncle asked if I could make a Kokopelli quilt for his wife. I promised to get right on that, after the mother-son dance and other trivialites.

In early November, I had a "holy crap!" moment, when I remembered that I had promised this quilt by Christmas. I found paper-pieced patterns and embroidery patterns for Kokopelli and they all screamed one thing to me "we'll take FOREVER to make!" Off to the internet I went to find Kokopelli quilt fabric.



Once the fabric arrived, I quickly chopped it into large pieces thanks to "Beginner's Luck" by Thimbleberries.

I finished the binding and mailed the quilt before Christmas. I deserve chocolate. Lots and lots of chocolate.

Thirty-Six!

Thirty-Five!

I haven't thrown in the towel yet. I'm quilting my fingers to the bone, and searching my brain for finished quilts that I haven't yet photographed. This is one of the latter:







There is some fun quilting in the black that can barely be seen. It has long rows of feathers, made with Handi Quilter Groovy Boards.

This will be a gift for a special young lady (who I hope doesn't read my blog!).

Fifteen quilts in 10 days.... can she do it? Probably not!

Cute overload

I'm not dead. I've been silent due to travel, both work and personal.

I'm not sure if I'll be able to publish Fifty Finishes by the end of the year. I've finished over fifty projects, but many are secret to-be-published projects that I cannot share here.

Last night I made the cutest. apron. ever.



Thirty-four!