Dear Jane – “Insanity Revisited”

The quilting bloggers contest continues until this evening at midnight:

Quilting Bloggers is having a contest of Christmas quilts – I entered my “Christmas Memories” in it.  You can go here to vote for your favorite and go to the weekly themed contest.  They are giving some nice prizes and I would so love to win one of these prizes help me and go vote for me – but really only vote if you really like it best!

Mike got my cabinets assembled yesterday – parts of doing that I couldn’t do – I did get all of the handles on though.  After he got them assembled I got busy going through junk drawers/baskets ect.  So much stuff!  I got so busy right away that I totally forgot to take a before and after photo but if you go back to this entry on my blog you can kind of see what I have although underneath the cutting table on the shelve it was over loaded with baskets full of things. Here is a link to an even older photo of the sewing room – this one shows the countertop that I placed the computer on and the mess that was normally under the table.   Here are the new caddies or cabinets as I refer to them more as.  One on each end of the cutting table.  Seeing as I forgot to take the before and after photo’s I thought I would take one when it was messy and going through everything trying to find spaces for things.

The SewEzi Table with the desk top insert in place so I have my computer here right now.  I also have a small lap desk that I can use for the computer when I have the sewing machine out and can take the computer into the living room when checking mail/reading blogs ect.  I don’t use my sewing machines all of the time like you all do will just have one of them out when I am actually using it.  It doesn’t take that long to set up and I have a bag for each of them for storage and place the sewezi insert for each machine with the machine so it is ready for use.

It transfers out easy – take the desk top insert out and put in the sewing machine insert and place you machine in (move the pins and bobbins out of the way of course).

Part of the mess right now while I organize:

More:

One border sewed onto the “Insanity Revisited” quilt (Dear Jane) I will work more on that today in between organizing some more.

I did work more on the room last night and have a lot of things in the drawers – I think I still have 3 empty ones they fill up fast.  I want to organize under the quilting frame as well and also the fabric shelves.  I think I will take some of that fabric off of the bolts and fold as it takes up too much space – flat folds will work out better in this space.  The photographs are going to go up on the wall above the quilting frame under the shelve.  I want to try to put it all in such a way that I can move at least some of the books up to eye level so I can see what I have.

More ph0to’s will be taken when I straighten it all up – I have a feeling that will be next week – so much stuff to go through – I am finding patterns I completely forgot I had plus little notions and things that had disappeared

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(EDITED:  Quilting Bloggers is having a contest of Christmas quilts – I entered my Christmas Memories in it.  You can go here to vote for your favorite and go to the weekly themed contest)

Done!!  well with all those pieces that is.  The blocks are all put together in 13 rows of 13 blocks in each.  The triangles are all put together into 4 borders of 13 pieced triangles and 14 plain triangles.  The corners are made and ready to attach.

What is left to do: I need to add a 3/4 inch sashing of the butter cream fabric all around the main part of the quilt.  Then I attach the borders.  After that comes a border of butter cream to make the scallop edges out of.

Right now before all of that this is what is done – the last corner – easy one here – all reverse applique.  In the original and also on my first DJ I pieced the star out of two fabrics, in this one I decided to just reverse applique the whole thing – it made it so much easier.

Here is the quilt laid out on the floor with the borders and corners ready to be sewed in place after the thin sashing is sewed on around the rows of blocks. This is not the correct placement for the borders and corners – I didn’t get the book out to see which went where – I just laid them down to take a photo.

I will get started today with the sashing and work on it for the rest of the year.  I have way surpassed my time on this one compared to the first Dear Jane I did.  I think I will be about 80 hours faster on this one – I guess that is what happens with practice practice makes perfect LOL (that is what one might think unless they have made this quilt too and examine and find all the little mistakes – but it is such a busy quilt no one will notice with this many pieces!)

I had a good day with my mother yesterday.  The weather held out good and I got off to an early start – I was on the road by 8 I think.  We got some shopping done, lunch, afternoon coffee shop for some coffee for me and tea for her.  I stayed within my goal of getting home before dark as I hate driving at night.  It was just getting dark when I pulled off the interstate and had 10 miles to go on the highway for home.

Mom loved the little tablecloth and it was in place on the table when I left.  I brought along some fresh homemade bread that I made late in the day on Wednesday (I will need to post that recipe at a later date – it turned out really great), brought some canned applesauce from November for her and cookies – she loved it all.  So glad I was able to get up there to see her.

Now I just hope she doesn’t get sick!  On the way home I started to feel like I was coming down with a cold and this morning I do not feel that great – maybe it is just being tired and I will feel ok later – hope so!

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In between baking bread and making cookies I managed to get done with the 3rd corner!! It was not a real difficult block but with 47 pieces it did take awhile.  I started it this morning then worked on other things.  This afternoon I sat back down and worked on it some more and then again this evening.  Again the flash was used so the color is not quite right but any of you who are following this progress know by now that the background fabric is a creamy buttercream – tint of yellow to it.  The stars are reverse applique.

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Yesterday was a very busy day in sewing.  As I told you all I had finished my last triangle several days ago and I got started sewing the last border triangles together!  Finished with them and also got one corner block sewed last night.  Three more corners to do and then I can get the borders in place.

The four triangle borders, I was so glad to get these done

My first cornerstone done, I couldn’t get the light right for this one – the buttercream background is too pale – the color is the same as the photo above.  These are 6 inches in the square area and taper almost 9 inches long – kind of shaped like a kite or ice cream cone.  This one had 30 pieces in it – the next that I will be starting on later today has 67 pieces in it – yikes! that will be fun

Now on to my experience with machine quilting yesterday with my Janome – thanks to whoever it was that told me I do have the capability to drop my feed dogs on this machine – I eventually found that in the book but I didn’t need to do it with the way I just did a straight stitch.  I do not know my machine – LOL – I use it strictly for piecing and have never machine quilted.  I guess I will learn if I try it again – at this point that is doubtful but who knows for down the road.  Also thank you to all the others that sent advice along the way yesterday!!

It took me 1 and 1/2 hours to do this little table topper.  I did take breaks but not enough – I have a lot of trouble with arthritis in my neck and shoulders and woke up this morning not feeling all that great – I am having a flare up of the arthritis this morning!  I will need to get the neck wrap warmed up and in place around my neck and do neck stretches today.  How do you all put up with how noisy the work is when you are using your machine all day!!   1 1/2 hours of sewing and listening to the machine drove me nuts.  Hand work is so different and I find it much more relaxing!!

Here is the table topper – it soften up nicely in the wash which did surprise me because this morning when I was looking at it I thought it so stiff from the quilting.  I was surprised when I took it out of the dryer and found that it had shrunk up nicely and felt soft too.

I use 100% cotton batting – Quilters Dream – I love the crinkly look after it is washed and dried.  The 24 inch square shrunk to about 22 1/2 inches which is the normal shrinkage.

A close up – if I ever do this again I will need to have a lighter foot – I tend to go fast on the machine so I can get done – but I wasn’t paying close enough attention to go straight – something to work on in the future if I try it again.  I had my stitch set to 2.8 and I think it worked out ok. I quilted it the way I have seen on a  Australian blog that I read – Red Pepper Quilts – she does a lot of small quilts and does straight stitching which I like.

This is the back – a pretty plaid from the stash.  No puckers from stitching – just from the shrinkage!  I used the basting spray that I had bought last month which doesn’t work out well for hand quilting but worked out just fine on this small piece.

The squares are left over pieces that I had from my box of Moda Sampler Squares that I had bought at the beginning of the year that I used in my “Going In Circles” quilt.  I still have two little bundles left over.  The background fabric and the plaid from the stash – the batting was scraps pressed together using the heat tape that I told you all about a couple weeks ago.

So when you machine quilt how often do you take breaks to keep your neck and shoulder muscles from tensing and if you have arthritis in those areas do you do anything special?

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I really and so truly want to get this quilt top done this year.  Mike was working 12 to 8 today so I decided I was going to sit and piece triangles for a good part of the afternoon and evening.  No cooking – set the cleaning aside today and it can wait for another time – the house is not foul and filthy.

NCIS on USA was running half the day I think.  I decided to watch/listen from 3 this afternoon until the news came on at 5 – fixed myself a quick supper by heating leftovers back to piecing and more NCIS and then Criminal Minds.  I think I might end up hating tv! Not really I love it for background noise when I’m by myself.

Mike continues these hours for the next two days- when it is just me in the house I can get done with a lot of sewing.

4th border – #1

#2

#3

I quit at 9 after I got triangle #4 prepped to work on tomorrow.  I imagine I will get back to work on them in the afternoon or evening if I can stand it and the next day too.  10 more triangles and 4 cornerstones to go.

I will let you know if I survive doing this again tomorrow and Friday!  I might just have to take a break and scream I just want to get done with it – do you ever get like that?

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Now the the quilting is done on the little quilt it is back to work on the triangles.  I got done with one last night and started on another.  I have two left to make for the 3rd border – getting there.  Between working on triangles and stars for the Star Crazy I think I will be concentrating on these two projects for the rest of the month.

I wanted to show you all the little bits that go in to making a triangle.  I save a lot of my scraps from this quilt as you can use a lot of tiny scraps in this quilt as you know.  I bought a bolt of each of the two fabrics that I am using for this quilt.  I will have a bit left over when I am done but that is because of saving scraps.  Sometimes I do not need to get a larger cut of fabric out at all when starting a new triangle (or block when I was working on blocks) – sometimes all you need comes from the bits and pieces.  I do not worry about grain when I cut these – they are so little in most cases I do not believe that matters.

Here is a close up of the flat flower pin head – now you get an idea of the size of some of these pieces.  All you need is to have enough fabric for a seam line which is the 1/4 inch in most cases.  Sometimes my seam is slightly less.  I get as many pieces cut from the bits before I get out a larger piece to cut larger templates when I need to.

All that is in the bag right now – I have been using a lot of my scraps up lately for these.

The triangle that came from these bits and pieces is the one I finished last night  Triangle #11 on the bottom border – two more and one more border will be done!

Yesterday we got our Christmas tree up.  We go with fake trees but the one we used last year is one that we have had for over 10 years and it was starting to get kind of ratty looking.  We decided it was time for a new one.  We have always gone for tall fat trees but really the space we have for it was always too crowded.  We decided it was time to go with a skinny tree.  I looked at the end of last season to see if I could find one at an after Christmas sale but no luck all the good ones were gone.  When the trees started to be put out in the stores in September (I can’t believe how early!) I started to look.  I found one at Hobby Lobby that I wanted and it was on a half off sale in early November.  It is a one that has the lights already on it, has flocking, pine cones & berries.  I loved it.

Here it is with the lights on.

A photo of it with the lights not turned on – you can see the flocking better this way

And a close up.  I love the berries already on the tree and I have more tucked in here and there.  I also put more pine cones on the branches and also some little fake apples. I like the way they look.  We have a variety of ornaments gathered over the years and tend to go with the old fashioned look of candles and wood with Paper Mache Victorian ornaments – mostly with Santa’s on them and a little bit of glass with glitter.

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