Red, White, and Blue Around the World

Since it was mentioned in our challenge about how most of the flags in the world have either red, white, or blue in them, I took that as my springboard for this challenge.

Long arming the starting point

It seems weird that this project began with long arming. Usually that's the end point, right?

Just getting going and proving this IS a blue fabric-not black like it shows in some of the other pics

Most of last night was spent doing the what is shown above. We have some very little islands out there in our oceans and some of them were just too darn small to snip around.

Africa is born

I started with one large continent just to boost my motivation. I knew cutting into the fabric around the smaller locations was going to be a challenge and needed something to keep looking at to encourage me.

Once all the discernible locations were cut out, I had to decide what exactly to do with what it was that was created.

Now what to do?

The last thing I need in this house are more wall hangings. Really! I have them hanging in the closets, stored in totes, and hung throughout the house. I slept on it last night, canvassed Katie for suggestions, (who asked her husband), I asked my husband, and came up with this...

A pillow of the world

The oceans are swirl quilted and the continents are quilted around using two layers of top fabric. Then, the upper most fabric was cut away from the fabric below it (which is called reverse appliqué). This will be a gift for my youngest son and his future wife for their new home. They are both history teachers and geography is a big part of what they teach. And, the youngest son is in the military and will probably continue to travel around the world much as he and his bride-to-be have already done. 

Lotsa Projects

Most of yesterday morning was spent getting Antelope Canyon off the long arm. I have one rule about the long arm. Before putting anything else on it, the previous project has to be completed (which means, usually, binding).

Here is Antelope Canyon completed.

My Version of Antelope Canyon

Now that that was done, I started working on Project Quilting 10.2. Here's a quick glimpse of it.

Well, this makes no sense

Ha! Ya have to wait until I finish it to see what it's going to turn out to be.

Meanwhile, after quilting the above piece, I wanted to work on the placemats some more, but my little Janome (Mike) is being rather fiddle-y about free motion quilting. I then made some extra borders for the placemats and loaded them on the long arm to get around Mike's new attitude issue. Yep, I know, the previous project wasn't completed yet, but there are always exceptions to the rules.

Rules were meant to be broken in this instance since I wanted to do a lot of long arm work yesterday. I needed to be on my feet since I feel like my butt is getting bigger by the day. Too much sit-down work lately.

Today is very snowy so I won't be going anywhere. Not that I have anyway...with the exception of taking the Dream Big panel over to the quilt shop, I haven't been out and about in nearly two weeks. I'll make the best of it and relish in the variety of projects going on in here.

20 Weeks Today!

I can't imagine our lives without this not-so-little girl in it anymore. It amazes me how quickly a dog can worm their way into your heart and your life.

Hello Everybody!

This pic is actually from yesterday, but it's close enough to her 20-week birthday (since that's today).

Nearly 20-Weeks Old 

On to quilting things...

Project Quilting 10.2 was released Sunday night. The theme for this week is red, white, and blue colors. And ONLY those colors. Nothing else is to be incorporated into the project.

Katie is already working on hers. I started thinking about mine while I was long arming Antelope Canyon, and then thought some more about it while piecing section 1 of 9 on Tristan's Fire Engine quilt.

Once Jim started watching the basketball game last night, I had found my background fabric; pressed that. Found my foreground fabric; pressed that. Found and transferred a map of the world onto overhead projector plastic. Transferred the world onto the blue fabric with quilt chalk and am now ready to actually start my project today. Well, after I get Antelope Canyon off the long arm and get it bound.

The gal sponsoring the Project Quilting challenge said most of the flags of the world have red, white, or blue in them. This is what prompted my direction in which I traveled with my thought process. We'll see where I head with this today and decide whether it was a good direction to travel.

Free Motion Woes

It's hard to get into something really intense when an 18-week old puppy as cute as Hazel is, wants, and needs, your attention.

Hazel has been very demanding the past two days and it's hard to dive into something for any length of time. At this point however, there are options.

Short snippets of piecing (such as Stripe Me Happy flying geese) is option number one. Researching items needed or techniques/classes on the wish list is option number two. Making a video for Handi Quilter to maybe?? win a chance to get to Utah for a long arm retreat is option number three. Or just wandering aimlessly around the house cleaning and putzing is option number four.

All options were exercised the past 24 or so hours. The video was submitted yesterday. I have found a class on Craftsy for a double wedding ring pattern using paper piecing for Caleb and Lia's wedding quilt. The house sparkles (except for maybe the windows and a little dusting here and there), and the second set of flying geese needed for border #3 are in progress.

Today is starting out to be much of the same.

But who can resist this cute face?

Hello!

Until I receive more batting (ordered on-line because nobody around here seems to have any wool at an affordable price), I am at a long-arm stand still. 

My Janome Horizon (Mike) is being a wiener about free motion quilting those placemats, even though he's been in for service about this very issue (shredding thread in certain directions). After I get what's partially loaded onto and done on DW, I'll finish the placemats on DW rather then struggling with Mike. It's just not worth the hot flashes and prolific language slinging to fight with a machine that has clearly decided it no longer wants to do one of the functions it's supposed to do.

So that leaves my other Janome 1800 (Jay) to piece flying geese, or anything else tugging at my tails, on today. I have three other machines. Two are old, old, old and don't have the ability/feet to try to free motion, and the other machine (Brother Innova Laura Ashley---aptly named Laura) has been tried in the past to free motion with very little success. So ya just make what ya got available work.

Onward, Ho! 

Plodding Along

I spent all of yesterday trying to get these first two borders in. Only two more to go.

Two more borders to go

As promised...

Here is Hazel at 18 weeks.

18 weeks yesterday

I think she's going to be a bit bigger then the 40 or so pounds we were expecting. Jim is guessing she's over 30 pounds right now. 

I watched a YouTube video on a golden doodle named Theo who is Hazels twin, I swear. And her growth is exactly matching his. As well as many of her personality traits. They are such kind and loving dogs and Theo was much larger then 40 pounds so I think we are in store for more of a big dog at maturity rather then a medium dog we had expected. Which is fine. Size wasn't a consideration. It would just be nice to be in the know for the future. 

Milestones

When a person accomplishes something they thought as their "Everest", the feeling is indescribable.

This was one of those moments for me.

Dream Big in Black and White

Yes, the panel is actually done in black and white. It wasn't just me doing that with my camera.

Details about this accomplishment:

Done on a Handi Quilt Fusion in manual mode at about 46%
Bobbin Thread: Sew Fine! #503 by Superior Threads
Top Thread: Magnifico #2165 (Silver) by Superior Threads
Batting: Two layers; the bottom is an 80/20 Dream Blend. The top is Hobbs Heirloom Wool
Hours to Accomplish: About 10 to include pressing and loading

I have another panel like this done in the aqua/blue color way. Katie got it for me for my birthday and I've looked at it now for over two months trying to decide what to do. While the one above is mostly feathers and their rendition thereof, the next one will be a mixed bag.

Meanwhile, today is Hazel's 19-week birthday. A picture today is in the plans as well as a variety of other projects happening in here.

Menopause Sucks!

Just sayin'. Hot flashes. Sleepless nights. Acne. Mood Swings. I feel like I'm back into the puberty years.

Despite all the physical changes happening to the body, we march on.

During the week, after getting my HOPE challenge done, I've pictorially recorded what I've been up to so I would remember what it was when I blogged again. I didn't know if later blogs would "bog" down the HOPE votes, so I didn't post for a few days to avoid voting confusion.

These two go together. I'm (finally) using a solids jelly roll I've had for a while

Beginning a few placemats

Dream Big

The last entry was loaded and started yesterday. Here's a better pic of what was completed before closing up for the night.

Love the texture

I'll work on all of these this week, as well as the Stripe Me Happy top. The sashing strips have been added all around and Katie figured out how to get the flying geese in the remaining three border strips that need to be added. I love Katie! But before those three flying geese borders are added, a narrow border needs to be put on to separate the two. This sure is one busy top I'm making!

The last sashing strip was set into the Tula 100 Blocks top, and now it's ready to head to the long arm...once the Dream Big panel is completed.

H.O.P.E. Challenge

It's actually called the Hope Springs Eternal-Challenge 1 of Project Quilting Season 10.

This is my first season. This is my first entry. This was so much fun to do.

While I have plenty of other goodies in my bag to create and do, it was fun to just park those off to the side for a day and have fun with scraps, letters, appliqué, quilting, and then finding a way to present the finished project.

But I'm getting ahead of myself. Let's start from the beginning. First a decision needed to be made (because plenty of ideas were rattling around in my head), WHAT exactly should be created. Since the ideas rattled around probably a day (or two) longer than should have, a clean and concise project was decided upon.

Starting out:

From the "White" bucket

All my little scraps are kept in buckets on a rotating stand. With the previous project, I was able to reduce all but the whites/off whites (and the browns) down to less-than-overflowing amount. I decided to make fabric out of some of the whites/off whites for the base of my message to reduce them somewhat as well.

Next:

Two blocks down. Two to go.

Making four fabric background blocks to put the letters on.

Oops!

Enough?

I needed to fuse the letters to the background blocks and this is all the fusible that was left in my supply. There are no resources nearby to acquire anymore because we live pretty remotely. Part of creation sometimes is making due.

After working through the fusible shortage:

Making the letters freehand and sizing them correctly

Each letter is individually appliquéd down with a different stitch.

A star stitch for the "O"

After trimming off threads, the blocks needed to be quilted. They could have been done on my home sewing machine, or put onto the long arm. Long arming gets me off my behind, so decided to go that route.

Echo quilting around each letter

After trimming and deciding on how to finish the blocks, a hanger was applied for display. The blocks are left without a formal binding and a zig-zag stitch around each of them was applied instead. I didn't want to detract from the letters and couldn't decide on a binding color that wouldn't.

H.O.P.E.

This will be a gift for next Christmas. I have a son and daughter-in-law who had a child born with a digestive abnormality. She spent her first month of life in the NICU and they never gave up hope on Hannah. She is now a thriving two-year old who loves to dote on her new baby brother.

It was great to use some of the left over scraps hanging around in the studio. It was fun to quickly come up with something and then use many of the resources available to textile artists today. It was not fun losing sleep over trying to decide which of the many ideas bouncing around in my head would be created in a short amount of time, and still be something proud to make, give away, and display. But I think the kids will enjoy having this hanging in their home.

Moving Along Despite the Mud

Yesterday was two-fold. Clean the dog/studio from mud. Piece the striped quilt top. Here's where I was at around 5:00 last night.

The striped top

I still had one more row to go and after Jim finally got home, was able to get the sixth row added. Notice the photo bomber in the bottom right hand corner. I must say. If one is looking to reduce their scrap stash, this quilt will reduce it significantly.

Those buckets behind Hazel were overflowing prior to my starting this top. Each bucket has its own color and Jim installed a rotating device underneath the stand that holds the buckets up. I can easily twirl it around to get to the color needed for whatever is being worked on. The only color still pretty full is the browns and whites since my intention was to make the striped top brighter, and felt the white may be too stark of a contrast.

Not sure what today is going to bring in the studio. Mud recovery is well at hand and there is still plenty to do in that regard.

Enjoying Winter

This hasn't been a normal winter. So far. Freeze. Rain. Snow. Freeze. Rain. Snow. Lather. Rinse. Repeat.

While I enjoy the milder temperatures, I do not enjoy a puppy, who likes to play in the mud, during this weird weather pattern we've experienced so far in northern Michigan. And, now she's growing out of her morning naps and has to be amused during most of the first two-thirds of the day. Like now. I'm playing tug-o-war with her while writing in my blog.

But I was able to finish this cute little piece yesterday during her afternoon siesta.

Moo!

I made another one similar to this for Ben a few years back and for some reason, thought I needed to make another for our house. Although, I haven't a clue where to put it now that it's done. 

I want to work on my striped blocks today, but we have more rain in the forecast and more milder temps until later tonight, so getting mud off Hazel and cleaning up her messes may be more in the cards. 

New Year, New News

So, let's get this out of the way first. Here's our baby girl.

Hazel at nearly 18 weeks

Apparently she'll mature at a much larger size then we originally thought, which is okay; closer to 75-90 pounds rather than the 40 we were lead to believe she would mature to.

Quilt Camp! I made this top.

Antelope Canyon

I constructed 36 blocks like these eight. I now have to play on the design wall to get them all together.

Scrap Buster for Sure!

Future project: Katie sent me a link this morning about a Project Quilting thingie. It sounds like fun.

Basically, you have a week to make something "quilty" focused around a word/theme and then post for a chance to win prizes and an opportunity to see what others are doing. I have to ask myself if I really need more things to do and I can't help but wonder just how much I need to make more "little" things that are of virtually no use to me around here. Getting a whole quilt done, start to finish, in a week is not where I want to venture into, and making more wallhangings just isn't what I need around here. I think I need to think about this further.