Winter or Spring?

February 16, 2015 by Candy Fullaway · Leave a Comment (Edit)

I’m having one of THOSE days.  You know the kind.  It’s a day where everything takes about twice as long as it should.  Everything I start to do reminds me of something else I need to do.  I sit at the computer, glance out the window and realize I need to bring in the garbage cans.  While doing that, I see that the tulips have grown significantly in the last week and it’s time to take a picture.  The phone rings and then I see dishes in the sink.  I ignore that and go back up to the computer.  I spill my drink, clean that up, plug my camera into the computer and it locks up the photo application.  The pork roast didn’t thaw as fast as I thought it would and now I have to think up something else for dinner.  And all this is after I’ve spent the morning at the sewing machine.  THAT day.

I’m actually playing hooky from the sewing machine for a bit to write this.  I have two quilts that need to be quilted in time for my Guild Quilt Show which is the first weekend of March.  I kept thinking I had lots of time.  Why on earth would I ever think that?  One project is thankfully small, but the other sort of got out of hand and it’s quite large.  I have big plans for the quilting so it’ll take some time.

 

I also have furry help.  Heaven forbid I take a picture that doesn’t include Ella.

The only good news here is that she doesn’t shed.  Also, she knows the phrase, “Get OFF.”

One of my distractions is that it’s lovely outside here, currently about 61 and sunny.  I want to start planting things.  It’s way too early for most stuff (although some Sweet Pea seeds would probably work).

The tulips are really going to town.  Didn’t realize until I saw the  picture that they’re being chewed upon.  Add some debugging procedures to tomorrow’s list.

If it’s snowing and miserable where you are, may I say that we skiers in the West would take some snow off your hands (and driveways) if we only had a clue how.

Our newsletter will come out later this week.  We only send it to people who sign up and we will email you a pattern for two postcards just for trying us out.  Just go to www.mobquilts.com 

I found this little volunteer in one of my planters at the front of the house.

Apparently it came up to remind me that winter is more than halfway over.

Keep quilting,

 Candy

PS  If you celebrate Lunar New Year, have a great one!

It's a Website!

Our website, mob quilts.com, is now up and running.  Thank you to Laura at Mosaikweb.com for all her work designing and setting up the site.  We love the new look.

Some of us are into instant gratification.  As in, "That looks cool; I want to have it now."  There's also the idea of trying to be kinder to our little blue planet.  As in, "Do I really want more paper to store or file or recycle?"   With this in mind each of our patterns is (or soon will be) available as a PDF.  Many are already good to go.  A few of the older ones are fighting back, but I'll get them done as soon as I can.

 

For some reason, Citrus Salad is being particularly feisty.  I dream of a day when all my electronic minions learn to work together.

Barb and I also want this site to be responsive to what you, as quilters, are looking for.  All your input is welcome.  Even though there are lots of guilds and quilt groups and friendly quilt shops, quilting can still be a solitary undertaking.  We'd like to offer friendship and support to all quilters who come to our site both because it sounds fun and because the quilting community has been good to us.

I love that we're launching in October.  It's pretty much my favorite month.  Tomorrow is the day I've appointed to put out my Halloween decorations.  It's a time when it's socially acceptable to be a little "out there" and I really love that.  In honor of that, our first pattern, Colors of Fall, is on special this month.  It's pretty quick and easy to make and we hope you enjoy it as much as we do.

One of the things I like about this one is that it's appropriate from September through November.  As much as I love my Halloween quilts, hanging them up in the house before or after October kind of creeps people out.

Now that the days and nights are cooler and the garden is mostly finished until next spring, I'm loving the idea of doing more quilting.  If only I didn't have to cook and shop and pick up the house and  . . .  well, I'm guessing you get it.  Sometimes life gets in the way of my fun.  Still, I don't think I'd want to have it any other way.

Please sign up for our newsletters.  We promise not to flood your inbox.  We'll talk a bit more about quilting techniques and welcome your input and ideas.  We'll also email you the patterns for two postcards just for signing up.

Keep having fun,

Candy

PS

This blog is also available on our website - www.mobquilts.com   It will continue here for the foreseeable future.

And Now, A Change in Seasons

It's beginning to feel like fall.  I love fall.  I love the colors and the weather and a reasonable amount of football.  Fall is the  start of my year even if it's been a long time since my kids were in school.  I miss the sound of the neighborhood kids playing outside in the mornings and early afternoons.  But once school is out, the weather is still nice enough for playing outside.

When I was in high school and college there was a certain excitement in the air with getting back into a routine and new classes and old friends.  I felt that anything was possible when there was a little chill in the evenings and pumpkins on the porch.

September still gives me that "new beginnings" feeling.  It's also my time to think that I can do about 20 things at a time and age has only slightly wised me up on that score.  Right this moment there are pickling cucumbers soaking in brine in the kitchen, the laundry room smells like the big bunch of dill waiting for me there, my tomatoes are ripening up so that most will be ready at the same time and I have more quilting projects in my head than I can possibly finish.  And just last week I was afraid I might run out of quilting ideas!

Apparently last spring I was afraid I would run out of tomatoes.  Fabulous tomato weather this summer has given me more than I would ever have thought.  

The new website is almost ready to launch.  

We're about to be off and flying and we're really excited.  This blog will be available there (as well as here) and we'll be adding a monthly newsletter.  When you sign up on our emailing list, we'll email you the pattern for these two postcards.  

Some days just require a small project that can be started and finished in a hurry.  

We're also featuring this pattern on sale for a limited time.

In the relax and laugh segment, check out Ella's cheesy smile.  

                                     

This is the face that says, "The pill you just gave me is sitting on the back of my tongue.  Whoever said it was chewable has no tastebuds.  I will keep smiling like this until you turn your back and then I will spit this baby out. Am I not adorable?"

Quilt for Fun,
Candy

Summer Flies By

A whole month has flown by and it's almost September.  It just went so fast!  Barb and I took a little road trip a couple of weeks ago.  We went to Sisters, OR just to hang our for a few hours as we missed the Outdoor Quilt Show this year.

Then we went to Bend, OR for a couple of days, for a float down the Deschutes River and a visit to quilt shops and a couple of boutiques.

Then we checked out the natural wonder that is Crater Lake.  The air is clear, the colors are saturated and the view is unbeatable.  

 From there we drove down to Medford where we visited my mom and Barb took in some plays in Ashland.  The turkey hens who visited several times a week last summer aren't coming around this year.  Somebody must have told them that a busy street is no place for birds who mostly walk.  Or maybe they aren't in love with the thunderstorms we experienced while there.


On the way home we stopped at Wildlife Safari and saw zebras, yaks, giraffes, lots of different antelope, bears, birds and this guy.  One can buy food for the animals in this section and the fact that we elected not to was not appreciated.  He'd have come into the car to check for himself had we let him.

All in all, it was a fun and relaxing trip.

While I was gone, the veggie garden got completely out of hand.  I had no idea that one cucumber plant could produce so many cukes.  It even sneaked over and grabbed onto a neighboring tomato plant so that I found a cucumber  among the tomatoes.

The sewing machine hasn't been as lonely as it may sound.  I belong to a small quilt group that does round robin quilts and I did my row for two quilts this month.  Because no one gets to see her quilt before all the rows are finished, I can't show them off until the reveal next month.  But I'll post some pictures then.

I also just finished a top for a new pattern called "Autumn Greetings."  I used a layer cake called "Hello Fall" by Sandy Gervais, and ⅔ yard solid golden yellow and ¾ yard burnt orange.  It's a fun way to try out some new fabrics without committing to lots of yardage.  It's quick and easy, which any quilt should be when attempted at the end of summer or the very beginning of fall.

This pattern will be featured when our new website goes live in a couple of weeks.

The availability of precuts brings up an old quilting discussion about the pre washing of fabrics.  While many quilters like the instant aging effect of not washing the fabrics until the quilt is completed, I generally rinse my fabrics in the washer with a dye-catching product and dry them in the dryer before they ever get to the studio.  I like to have any dye transference or shrinkage addressed before I invest time in sewing.  It's true:  I'm not really a gambler.  The exception I make is with precut fabrics.  I'd hate to lose the whole width of a little piece to raveling or shrinkage.  If I use precuts, I generally don't prewash the other fabrics in the top.  Just seems safer that way.  I have been known to cheat and get lucky, but again, I don't really like to gamble.

Have a wonderful and safe holiday weekend!
Candy


PS  I'm a new great-aunt.  To see a picture of the lovely Laurel and her beautiful parents, check out the blog, I Make Quilts at imakequilts.blogspot.com

Summer!

Mid-July is the peak of summer here.  Little veggie starts have become a jungle and I've already picked three zucchini at the perfect size.

  I'm training the plants up tomato cages so I have a shot at seeing the fruits of my labor before they're the size of baseball bats.

I still have to really get in among the leaves to find them all as they like to hide from me.  Lock your cars up, folks, or someone will leave you a bag of zucchini!

I planted some dahlia bulbs this spring just to add something new to the front yard.  They're now big and bushy and just starting to bloom.  They seem to like my front yard.

I finished the top of another Blue Star Mothers quilt.  This one is square - 5 blocks by 5 blocks.  I actually started it last summer but then new Halloween fabric came out . . .  All the reds and blues were large scraps from the stash and toward the end a couple of strips and triangles got pieced.

 The challenge was to have the large red squares be the same fabric.

This seems pretty straightforward until you realize that the corners of that block are actually part of the block next to it.  So each block like the one below has four different reds and the red triangles have to be in the right place to match the blocks around it.

This requires a design wall (or really good notes) and paying really good attention.  Please believe me when I say that when I sewed when tired, I had to rip out the next day.  It looks kinda cool, so it was worth it.  I'll add it to the gallery on the website after it's quilted.  

The wedding ring quilt made it to the wedding.   Since I didn't want to mail it or check it, it had to be carry-on.  Actually, everything I took was carry-on.  In order to make it a manageable size, it spent a few hours in a space bag and went in my large tote bag.  Being vacuum packed for a day worked fine.  It came right back to its previous loft.  The wedding was lovely and we had a great time.  I'm ready for a few smaller projects now.  

Quilt because it's fun!

Candy

Something New, Blue and Finished!

The wedding quilt is finished.  There's nothing quite like the feeling of finishing a project before the deadline.  The lifting of stress from one's shoulders is a beautiful thing.

I'm currently finishing a couple of UFO's which is actually kind of relaxing.  One is a kit that I started (and almost finished) last year.  I like to design my own, but once in a while a kit can be relaxing.  It took me a long time to come to that as I had a bad kit experience many years ago.  I was given a kit for a baby quilt and I'm pretty sure that whoever cut the pieces must have been blindfolded.  When gingham is cut without regard for grain lines, you can be sure that gnashing of teeth cannot be far behind.  It took me a long time to try another one.  And the few I've done in the last 20 years have been great.

This leads me to a short commentary on attention to detail.  We're having a new roof put on the house this week.  The destruction phase is noisy, to say the least.  And the amount of debris is amazing.

This pile completely covered the kitchen window.  A pile of old shingles about 7 feet high is something to behold.

  The whole process kind of freaked out the dogs on the first day, but they've been amazingly calm.  I'm currently watching one of the workers put shingles on just outside my office window.  He's fast and efficient, yet matches carefully, staples accurately and trims as if he's done it a million times before, which he probably has.  It's actually pretty cool to watch.


The only casualty of the installation of the new roof is the mirror in the hall bathroom which fell off and shattered into about a million pieces yesterday.  It wasn't installed correctly when the house was built and apparently the dropping of a package of shingles on the roof was the final straw.  Luckily, nobody was in the bathroom at the time.  Shards of glass went everywhere, even out the door into the hall and across the hall into my office.  What a mess!  New roof checked off the list.  New bathroom mirror added to list.  Ahh, the joys of home ownership.

A great deal of what makes quilts beautiful (and wins ribbons) is attention to detail.  At first this takes longer, but as we practice both our sewing skills and patience with ourselves, doing it well becomes a habit and we become proficient at our art.  It takes time.  There will always be a story about a quilter who won a huge prize with her second quilt.  The rest of us continue to learn and practice and love the process of quilting.  A prize is icing on the cake.  The cake is color and design and the joy of doing what we love.


With Independence Day coming up, it pleases me so much to see so many Quilts of Valor being made and given away.  I made a red, white and blue quilt for my son while he was in Iraq some years ago.  I remember thinking that all the service members coming home should get one.  I did a little research on the net and found Quilts of Valor and made and sent them a quilt.  I actually have another top made and will finish it in the next few months.  As the mother of a Service Member, I'd like to thank all those who have given to Quilts of Valor.

Enjoy summer and take time to quilt.

Candy

About The Right Way

School is out for the summer so now it's pouring rain and chilly.  Aside from the fact that a good soaking is nice before the summer heat moves in, it's a bummer if you're either a school age kid or the mother of a school age kid.  I remember being both the kid and the mother and it's kind of depressing as summer should mean sun all the time.  And we'll eventually get lots of sun, just not today.

And then there was thunder and it began to hail.  I'm still in the midst of planting flower pots, but I'm thinking it won't get done today.

My mom tells me that life goes faster and faster as one gets older.  Up until now, I believed her.  About three weeks ago I caught a cold that turned into an ear infection.  While it wasn't as painful as it might have been, the days between feeling terrible and feeling better went very slowly.  Sweet Husband will very likely agree  that I was pretty cranky.  By that I mean that I took lots of naps, interrupted by a lot of whining.  There are no pictures of this because nobody wants to see that.  I am, however, on the mend and feeling much better.  After the first few days,  I spent time quilting the Wedding Ring quilt for my son and almost-daughter-in-law.  I've been working on it since January and while I'm ready to be finished with it, I still like it.  I seldom have projects that last this long, so I'm getting pretty antsy to move on to something new.  The wedding is a month away and the quilt will be ready!

A few months ago, someone watched me working on some embroidery and informed me that I was doing it backwards.  It was a friendly comment more than a criticism, but I spent the next 20 minutes trying to figure out how to do it "right.''  I think I figured it out, but the truth is it looks better the way I always do it and went back to what was comfortable for me.  This brings up an interesting point that I try to stress when I teach:  There is more than one way to do things; it's up to you to find the way that works for you.

I do hand appliqué from time to time.  I've learned the hard way not to set unrealistic deadlines for that sort of thing. With had work, it takes as long as it takes.  I've taken several classes on hand appliqué over the years and my way of doing it incorporates skills and approaches that are a mixture of at least three of these classes.  My personalized way of doing it is the right way for me and that's the important thing.  My point is simply this:  Be open to new ways of doing things, but don't be a slave to the "right way of doing things" police.  Your way may evolve over time and become the new "right way."  Also, be sensitive to the way you critique or offer help to others.  "It's interesting how you do that backwards," may not be the perfect opening line.

Here's a bit of what's stitched backwards.  Who knew?

WORRY LESS.  QUILT MORE.

Candy