New project!

What a fun week it has been! We spent a day taking care of our littlest grandkiddie E last Friday, and then on Saturday, we took the train to Chicago to party all weekend for grandson C's first birthday. It was a blast! We took the train back on Monday evening through frigid temperatures and snow--it was like riding the Polar Express, but we didn't have the hot chocolate. Now it's finally really winter here--cold and snowy (there was even a snow day for lots of schools yesterday) and the perfect time to quilt. 

Even though we were busy this past week, I did get a good start on my new project: The Use Your Illusion quilt from Cheryl at Meadow Mist Designs. Funny, in my mind I've been calling it Choose Your Illusion, and I just noticed that wasn't right. Oh, well. I am choosing my illusion--I'm doing this quilt in color. (And I just noticed on her blog, that someone else has beaten me to that idea.) I really like the black and white of the original quilt, but the organization I'm making this for would like colorful quilts. 

I had to include my "Muppet" feet--they match the quilt!

I'm doing 6 different modern prints with planned random color placement. My rule for myself is to kind of evenly distribute the colors but sometimes continue a stripe around a corner. All of the fabric (as well as Cheryl's pattern) is from giveaways. I'll include the specific info about the fabric in a later post. To get the size I want, I'm making 3/4 of the pattern (skipping the first two columns of blocks). I hesitated to do that because it changes the overall design, but I think it will look good anyway. Oh, and here's a question for you. I'm going to do meander quilting. What do you think about using Superior King Tut in Cleopatra? It has all of the colors except the yellow. Otherwise, I'll do a white. 

This quilt will be my January project when I'm not doing FMQ on the Big Quilt. I'm kind of working on a deadline, because I promised to send it (and a not-yet-started quilt) in March. So I guess my quilts are making a list for goals for me, even though I usually avoid that practice. 

I'm linking up this week with Freemotion by the River for Linky Tuesday, Freshly Pieced for WIP Wednesday, Sew Fresh Quilts for Let's Bee Social and My Quilt Infatuation for Needle and Thread Thursday. Buttons for all are on the right side of this page. 

Okay, back to work. Have a good week, and if you live anywhere near me, stay warm!

How My Bathrooms Got Cleaned

I've sort of set aside my major ongoing project for a bit. My designing just wasn't going where I wanted it to, and so I'm back to the consultation phase with my daughter-in-law. That means that I'm also back to the little quilt I started a few weeks ago, and it's almost a finish. 

When I work on a FMQ project, I tend to get obsessed with getting it done. My shoulders tense, my hips get stiff from treadling without breaks, and (with my less-than-stellar eyesight) my vision gets blurry from too much staring at one spot and not enough blinking. I also get sloppy because I try to go too fast (not that my stitches are so even anyway). So I decided that this time around I had to do something about that. I would take breaks after every section of quilting. 

And that's how my bathrooms got cleaned. 

I like a reasonably clean house, but I don't like the reasonable amount of cleaning that's needed to keep it that way. It just seems a waste of time to clean something that is just going to get messy and dirty in a few minutes again. Especially when I'm sewing, which is pretty much all the time. I feel the same way about cooking. Why spend hours making something that will get eaten in less than ten minutes? I'd rather make a quilt that I can give to someone and have it last than make a big meal that just gets consumed. When I said that to my husband, who does a LOT of the cooking around here--or we might go without food--he was not amused. Oops. Digression. Anyway, throughout my adult life, I've had to make lists and schedules to get myself to do mundane household chores. I even joined Flylady, an online support community, to try to get into some good habits. (The only habit that has really stuck is making my bed every day; I do like getting into a made-up bed at night. And think about it. If you are a quilter and have a quilt on your bed, isn't it nice to have it all smooth and pretty during the day?) 

So today, after each section of quilting, I did a little bathroom chore--cleaning mirrors, counters, toilets, and before I knew it, the quilting and the bathrooms were done, I still had my vision and I wasn't stiff. Woo hoo! The rest of the house is kind of a disaster, but I guess that just means I need to find something else to quilt. 

So here's what I've got:

The sashes are quilted as suggested in the pattern I used (Gently Down the Stream by Christina Cameli). I'm going to call them organic wavy lines, because that sounds a whole lot more sophisticated than saying that they are a bit unintentionally wobbly. They were fun to do, and by stuffing the whole quilt under the harp area of my machine and quilting my way out, I was able to keep quilting across the whole length of the quilt without stopping. The pattern also suggested a stylized floral design in the printed fabrics, and I tried a free-form version but I wasn't happy with my effort, and the designs didn't really show that much on the front or the back so I ended up just meandering. I like the contrast between the squishy meandered quilting and the tighter quilting on the sashes. 

Next up is the binding--that strip you see there. I can get that machine sewn yet today, and then I'll hand stitch it to the back tonight while watching TV.

I'm linking up today with Freemotion by the River, Freshly Pieced,  and Sew Fresh Quilts.

Check back tomorrow for a Throwback Thursday quilt. And I think on Friday, I'll have a finish to show. Yippee!