I'm back.

OK, my mini trip south is over.
Back to the frozen north, and my regular routine.

I will miss my friend, Linda, and our daily walks, even in the rain.

When we left the hotel this morning, at 6:40am, in Allentown, PA, I was sideswiped by a tractor trailer.  We were both stopped at the traffic light, and unlike most trucks that make huge and wide turns, he just cranked left, and practically ripped the back of my car off.
It was scary, and noisy, but didn't do as much damage as I thought.
I tried to catch him, honking my horn, but he stepped on the gas.  He had no intention of stopping.
I had to stop, to investigate the noise coming from the back of my car.  The metal that he ripped off, was bent into the tire, so we had to bend it back before we could proceed.
While it is upsetting, we weren't hurt.  It's just a car, after all.

First order of business, when we got home, was to get Bart from the vet's.  He was apparently not very cooperative while he was there, and crowed so much they were happy to see him go.

He was very quiet in the car on the way back to the studio.  When he got there though, he was a happy boy.
It must have been a nightmare, no wonder he wasn't cooperative.
Home with his girls now, back to normal.

I have a huge list of things to do.

But first, I need to do some weaving.

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Farming it.

While I am in Georgia visiting my friend, Lois has been in charge of the studio, which includes cat care, and MUCH to her dismay, chicken duty.
Today I got the call that I knew had to come.  I have been dreading her having any problems related to her "fowl" duties.

But sure enough, while I was perusing Kroger's grocery store, looking for stuff for dinner, my cell phone rang.    A hysterical pretty upset Lois was on the other end of the line.

It seems that Bart had somehow gotten injured, and his entire chest was covered in blood.  And if you know anything about chickens, you know that the rest of them will 'happily' peck him to death, if he is bleeding.
We went over all the different scenarios that might work.  Unfortunately, the coop is one room, and there is no place to separate a wounded chicken. That's going to change this year, I promise you.

Finally, she suggested that she call our Wildlife Control guy, who lives nearby.  He has successfully rehomed a few skunks for me.
Then it hit me........my vet has taken care of some strange animals, even an iguana.  Why not a rooster???

Lois just called me, in her car, on the way to the vet, with Bart in a crate in the back. 

Probably crowing all the way.

Lois's first book may be called "Hit by a Farm CHICKEN".

Hoping Black Bart is ok.  We'll keep you posted.

I better get home.

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WIP Wednesday

Someone asked me the other day if I ever make something that I don't like. I had to think about it but the answer was a resounding "yes"! And today's WIP post is a testament to that! Here's what's happening in my sewing world this week...

Yesterday I started one of my 2015 new projects. Bring Me Flowers, a pattern by Jen Kingwell. My first block turned out pretty well, but not without some resewing. I had the stems positioned all wrong - they didn't even touch the "flower" motif. So I unappliqued them and resewed. They're still not perfect, but I'll get better.

My Flowering Snowball Quilt... My plan was to hand quilt this. I basted it together for hand-quilting, started quilting and decided I didn't enjoy the quilting or love the look to do the whole thing.  Hand quilting for me is definitely for smaller projects. So off to the machine I went. My mistake was to leave the basting stitches in. In hindsight, I should have pin-basted it and removed the thread basting. My machine foot is annoyingly getting caught up in the threads, but I'm now more than half-way done so I'll continue. Take my advice - no thread basting for machine quilting!

So now I'm in the middle of machine quilting 2 quilts. A common mistake for me here - I quilted a motif in the squares that I didn't like at all. After 3, I ripped the stitching out and found something new. We're now on a roll...

And this project is back on track. My original plan was to make the blocks with a Heather Bailey print and a variety of solid colors. Four blocks looked great (you may have seen them on Instagram), 8 blocks looked like a chaotic mess. So back to the drawing board and I'm going with a soft look of prints and white. Liking this much better...

And just for the fun of it one night, I made this little Dresden from a Day Sail 2 1/2" pack. No problems here - I love it! Just not sure what to do with it!

Something I know for sure - changing your mind and unstitching are just part of the process. Honestly I don't even think about it much!

Linking up to Lee at Freshly Pieced!

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C'mon along.

Well, it's cold even in the south.  The wood stove is roaring.
During the day it's still warm enough to walk the dog though, and there is NO SNOW or ICE on the ground.

 You cannot hate that.

I've been taking it easy, something you know I don't do often.
Doing a little knitting.

My friend and I are doing a little shopping, a lot of talking, and cooking when we are so moved.

I have to say that these egg muffins are going to be in my refrigerator on an ongoing basis.  What a quick, great breakfast.
I love them.  Without the meat, of course.

We are making them again tomorrow!!!

More knitting......this for my grandbaby, Dale.

In pale pink, what else?

 Then a little side trip for FABRIC.
I know, I know.  I have enough fabric.
How can that be true?????
Hmmmmmmm?

 And you have to love this.   It's almost surreal.

They say it's going to rain here on Monday.

They did not say snow.
So it's all good.

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Charley Harper Quilt

First up, I really want to thank all of you for your feedback on my blog's future. Your comments really meant a lot. And whether you comment or not, it gives me the assurance that someone's out there!

My Charley Harper Quilt is finished and ready to hang!! I first blogged about the blocks here. As I mentioned in my earlier post, I had attempted a couple of ideas with this line and knew pretty quickly that those first ideas were not my vision for the fabric. One of those ideas was an improvisational pieced block using the fussy cut motifs in the fabric. One block made and I knew the busyness would detract from the beautiful artwork. That's what sparked this idea - artwork. Treat it like art; frame each piece; and hang them similar to a gallery wall.

I got lots of feedback from others who have struggled with what to do with the line. Here's how I did it! Feel free to copy away!

The quilt is made from two simple 13" finished blocks which are mirror images of each other.

For each block you need the above finished size squares and rectangles and the following strips {unfinished size} one 1 1/2" x 13 1/2", one 1 1/2" x 4 1/2", one 1 1/2" x 8 1/2".

I made my squares and rectangles by fussy cutting the motifs in the fabric and adding various size strips until it was a bit oversized. I then trimmed them to the unfinished sizes: 4 1/2" square; 8 1/2" square and 4 1/2" x 8 1/2".

When fussy cutting the rectangles, I tried to keep the proportions even. A 3 1/2" x 7 1/2" center required a border that finished at 1/2" on each side.

A 2 1/2" x 6 1/2" center required a border that finished at 1" on each side.

The blocks are pieced by sewing the squares and rectangles together with the 1 1/2" strips as pictured.

I made 9 blocks and sewed them together with 1 1/2" unfinished strips for sashing, alternating the two mirror image blocks.

I struggled with a quilting design, but ended up doing organic lines with my walking foot horizontally from edge to edge. I'm really happy with the way it turned out!

My quilt was made with 2 fat eighth bundles of Charley Harper fabric {the earlier collection and the newest collection "Nurture} that I got from Westwood Acres Fabrics.

Hope that helps you make your own! Let me know if you have any questions! I have the perfect spot to hang mine!

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Checking in.

Just checking in, so you all don't think I fell off the flat edge of the earth.
There is one, right?

An edge?

Well, I'm fine.  I am once again touring the state of Georgia.  Visiting my childhood friend, and enjoying some sunshine.

Roy is totally thrilled to be able to go out and walk with no snow or ice.

We are not doing anything spectacular other than enjoying each other's company.
We made this awesome salad today for lunch.

We checked out a couple of yarn shops.   (MANDATORY)

And tonight we are having coffee by the fire.

I will be back, but right now, I am just chillin'.
Hope wherever you are, you can chill, too.

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Well, Hello 2015...

I think for many of us today is the start of the new year. Vacations are over, kids are back to school and it's time to put those 2015 plans into place.

I may be weird, but I actually love this time of year. I'm a very reflective person and it seems the right time to look forward, make life adjustments, and set some goals.

One of the things that has been on my mind is the blog. Have you noticed that blogging has changed over the past couple of years? Blog posts are less frequent, comments are fewer and, what began for many bloggers as a platform for journaling their creativity, has become a place to promote their business. I'm not implying at all that this is a bad thing - certainly the internet and a blogging platform have given many creative talents the opportunity to get noticed. They're now designing fabric, writing books and providing some fabulous products for all of us to work with and I love seeing that. How I wish all of this was available when I sat down to submit my first book proposal.

And I have to admit, my blogging schedule has slowed. The ease of social media sites like Instagram has created quite a shortcut for posting and commenting. In the past month, I've been thinking about stopping my blog and simply continuing to share on Instagram. I spent several evenings reading through my blog from the beginning and I knew pretty quickly, I couldn't/shouldn't quit. Even if it's for me only, I enjoy my quilting diary and I love that writing a blog post makes me stop, appreciate and reflect on what I've made. I recently read this book, a sequel to Steal Like An Artist by Austin Kleon.

This quote from the book really struck me:
"good work isn't created in a vacuum, and ... creativity is always, in some sense, a collaboration, the result of minds connected to other minds." ...page 11

Also:
Creatives are always "supporting each other, looking at each other's work, copying from each other, stealing ideas, and contributing ideas." ...page 11

So although I'll be posting regularly on Instagram - I'll be here too. A blog is a place to get more in-depth, share the process, talk about inspiration and peek a little closer into the work/life of the blog writer. And I don't want this to become a place of "here's a new finished quilt", which I think it has in the past several months. I've decided to go for a weekly post {maybe more some weeks}, which will certainly include my finished projects, but will also include what's happening that week in my creative world - good and bad. Hope you'll join me!

I also had fun this past week making a list of what quilts are on my radar. It a long one, but that's what happens with all this creative sharing and I couldn't be more excited about it!

In 2013 and 2014, I did a year long project. I so enjoyed that and feel I'd love another for 2015. I haven't bought the pattern yet, but I'm ready to hit the button and start Bring Me Flowers by Jen Kingwell.

I've wanted to do a Houndstooth quilt and was reignited when I saw Allison's from Cluck Cluck Sew. I'm think of doing mine scrappy with just two colors, probably white and aqua. There's a slick method on Youtube by Missouri Star Quilt Co that I'll try.

I browsed my quilty Pinterest board and found several I'm putting toward the top of the list:
Cracker
Fireworks
Flying Geese
Refresh
Diamond Ring Quilt

Have you seen the new book Vintage Vibe? I love several of the quilts, but I may start with this one:

I always like to try something new and I think it will be the Glam Clam Quilt. I love Clamshells and I'm excited to try this method.

And finally, I've admired this quilt at Urban Outfitters and really want to make it after seeing Rita's version. I'm going to need to make it my own and I'm thinking of some kind of ombre version like this.

I started drawing a bit in 2014 and I hope to continue that and make it a habit in 2015.

So those are my creative plans! I've been piecing here and there over the holidays and have a few things to get quilted first. I also finished up my Charley Harper quilt and will share a tutorial later this week.

I feel excited and optimistic for 2015! I wish all of you the same!

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