Sunday, January 31, 2010

Not your great grandma's quilting bee


IMG_1900, originally uploaded by shanleytulip.

The sewing day was a huge success. We had a great spread of snacks and lots of projects to chose from. My house and sewing room are not quite large enough for everyone to sew inside (at least not in the same building) so we did ours mostly outdoors. January in San Diego, gotta love it.


My house is small, originally uploaded by shanleytulip.



Annette traveled all the way down to play with us and so she used the big machine to stipple a quilt for one of her grand babies.

IMG_1893, originally uploaded by shanleytulip.



Karen was the winner with three completed projects.


IMG_1892, originally uploaded by shanleytulip.

Saturday, January 30, 2010

Pillowcase for my Brother


Pillowcase, originally uploaded by shanleytulip.

In between chores and hand sewing the Figgy Pudding binding, I did manage to get a pillowcase sewn up for my brother. His "travel" pillow is an odd size so I hope this fits okay. It's cold in Afghanistan so I'm hoping the flannel is appreciated. I'm sure the pattern will be. Here's a close up.


photo.jpg, originally uploaded by shanleytulip.

Thursday, January 28, 2010

Work sure gets in the way


Work sure gets in the way, originally uploaded by shanleytulip.
This is where I was on my quilt 12 hours ago. . . . and oh look, I haven't made any progress yet. This whole having a full time job sure gets in the way of things. I suppose that's how I can afford all the stuff in that room. And if you know what you're looking at in the background you can see a picture of a baby tiger that I had printed on fabric at Spoonflower. I took the picture on my trip to Thailand Dec 2008. Oh right, one more thing that was made possible by a job.

Okay, I'm back out to finish the last couple of feet of the binding tonight. I'm getting ready for a big Quilting Soiree on Sunday so gotta get the frame cleared and workspaces for 4 set up*.

*Karen, if you read this, I know you're coming on Sunday and you know you don't need a workspace for anything other than setting your cocktail down.


Bleeker St, originally uploaded by shanleytulip.

I also got a little more done on the Bleeker St this past weekend.

Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Back of Sherbet


photo.jpg, originally uploaded by shanleytulip.

Here's my favorite side of this quilt. I just like this flannel and it settled down the sherbet yellow, pink and orange front.

This one went to a friend at work and she has promised not to hang it on the wall.

Saturday, January 23, 2010

I tried, really I tried


IMG_5355, originally uploaded by shanleytulip.

I was sort of trying not to buy any fabric this month. Just to see if I could possibly do it. Turns out I couldn't. So here's what I got today to keep my projects rolling. Some green polka dot flannel for the back of the Bleeker St. A different green for the binding since my folding of the Dimples fabric was a little too neat and I didn't realize that there were huge pieces cut out. I found lots of that fabric pattern but none in quite the right green. The red with skulls is a little something for my brother who is in Afghanistan.


IMG_5360, originally uploaded by shanleytulip.

This is the border and backing for the Whirlygiggles. It's just giggly and the yellow is flannel. Yes, this brings me up to 95 yards of flannel. Ah well, it's cold in San Diego right now, down in the 50s.

Wednesday, January 20, 2010

Love U Whirlygiggle Mockup


Love U Whirlygiggle Mockup, originally uploaded by shanleytulip.

I cut a pink block and a red polka dot block to see how I liked it and because I'm having a hard time with the measurements of using charm squares for the whirlygiggles. I just added in some randomly recolored blocks although they aren't close at all.

So no, I'm not quite nerdy enough to take photos of all the blocks and slice them on the computer.

At least not today.

Tuesday, January 19, 2010

Love U


Love U, originally uploaded by shanleytulip.
I used a gift cert to get a couple of charm packs of Love U fabric by Deb Strain. I'm having a hard time deciding just what to do with it. It's so cute in a little color stacked package but I broke it out today and pinned it up on one of my magnetic walls. I might have to live with it for a few days before I make up my mind though.

Here's some close ups -

Love U Close Up, originally uploaded by shanleytulip.



Love U #2, originally uploaded by shanleytulip.


To cut them up or just whip them all together real quick?

Monday, January 18, 2010

How To Sew on a Label

Step 1     Print label on white cotton
Step 2     Edge with pretty scrap from front of quilt
Step 3     Go out to sewing room to find needle.
Step 4     Notice that there is a small lake in front of door due to the current "storm".
Step 5     Enter sewing room and notice that the lake has a tributary inside the room.
Step 6    While sopping up that water, notice that the entire wall has sprouted tributaries.
Step 7     Despite earthquake anchor at the top of new cabinet from Ikea, quickly move the entire cabinet out of harm's way.  Sorry for the new hole, wall.
Step 8     Move shed on outside of wall to give enough space to dig a trench down the entire length of the backyard.  Did I mention that the storm is current?
Step 9     Ensure trench is draining properly.  All lakes and tributaries should be sopped up with towels.
Step 10   Spin towels in washer and put in the dryer.  This is the first day of a projected four day storm.
Step 11    Change clothes while contemplating the possible location of a rain jacket.
Step 12    Whipstitch label to back of quilt.

Flannel

I prefer to back my quilts in flannel.  It just makes it a little more snuggly in my opinon.  I'm trying to figure out what to do for the back of the Bleeker St quilt since the brown paisley I bought just doesn't get along with it.  If I wasn't doing green in the border and binding then I would go with the green dots I used on the Figgy Pudding.

So while thinking about it, I decided to inventory the flannel that I do have.  Not counting the under 1/4 yard scraps. . . . 84 yards of flannel live here.  Plus one flannel sheet that will eventually be the backing for a quilt for my bed.

Umm, yeah, 84 yards.

I've just resolved to not inventory my cotton fabrics.

Saturday, January 9, 2010

Helping


photo.jpg, originally uploaded by shanleytulip.

I'm trying to pull out all of the olive quilting stitches on the top of this quilt whilst MP is helping in her own special way. I've got all the big ugly olives out and now it's just the last of the middle border that still needs to be removed. It's such a slow process and I've already burned through my Hulu queue.

Friday, January 8, 2010

Working at Random


My Flannel Quilt, originally uploaded by shanleytulip.

This is an older one. I named it Working at Random because I don't do random well and I had a hard time keeping the small squares from going into a pattern. I suppose that's not random then but close enough for me. It's got Warm and Natural batting in it too so it's a very heavy warm quilt.

I used a die cutter to cut and fringe the small squares at the same time. I did have to go back to cut a fringe for all the big squares and that was a royal pain.

I finished this one in February 2008.

Thursday, January 7, 2010

Judy's Quilt


2009 Fall Quilt, originally uploaded by shanleytulip.

Here's the final pictures of the quilt I gave to my brother and sister-in-law. I used a jelly roll by Sandy Gervais in a cake walk pattern and then used the extra ends of the strips as the binding. I like the way it turned out but it was hard having all those extra seams while doing the whip stitching on the back.

The backing fabric is not flannel which is rare for me. I just liked the little orange flowers too much not to use them.

Close Up


Fall, originally uploaded by shanleytulip.

Here's a close up of one of the secret messages I've been putting in my quilting. We couldn't find the other message but that's okay. I've also been signing my quilts in the quilting which gives me an excuse not to actually label my quilts. I am going to make a better effort to get those on though. Wish me luck!

Tuesday, January 5, 2010

Pinwheel Center


IMG_2046, originally uploaded by shanleytulip.

I think that this is the center we're going to do for the pinwheel's on my niece's quilt. I've sent the picture for approval on to my mom though so it could change. If it's okay then I've got to make 8 more yoyo buttons for this quilt. But I didn't bother to measure this one before I sewed it down. Oops!

Sunday, January 3, 2010

It's for the Children


photo.jpg, originally uploaded by shanleytulip.
I'm teaching my sister-in-law to sew while I'm out visiting this week. For our first project we made pillowcases for the Hole in the Wall Gang Camp. We got the pattern from Canton Village Quilt Works and are going to send our 5 pillowcases out tomorrow.

Next up is a cushion cover and then the world.

One Set


photo.jpg, originally uploaded by shanleytulip.

Shad's friend made these as a gift for his wife.