4th of July

I wanted to share a new project that I started yesterday, that I thought was quite appropriate for the 4th of July celebrations.  What?  A new project without finishing the other one first?  That never happens! ;-)

You’ve seen me post about the organization called American Hero Quilts, who donate homemade quilts to wounded soldiers who come to Madigan Army Hospital in Tacoma, WA.

Well, if quilting isn’t your thing, then I want to let you know about another opportunity to help.  The Yarn Shoppe, a local business here in the Boise area,  is working to make knitted “helmet liners” for The Idaho National Guard’s deployment early this fall.  According to their website:

We are continuing our call for knitters to help make helmet liners for the Idaho National Guard's deployment early this fall.  The 116th Brigade from Idaho , Montana , and Oregon is shipping out to Iraq in September.  There are about 1500 Idaho soldiers and 1200 from Montana and Oregon involved.   We are helping this effort by distributing patterns, discounting the wool yarn needed, and providing a drop off point for the helmets.

These caps are used to help keep the soldiers warm in the winter and can also be soaked with water to keep heads cooler in the summer under the military helmets.

These caps MUST be knitted from 100% wool for safety (acrylic yarns can melt in a fire or explosion) and MUST be in medium to dark earth tone colors (black, grey, browns, tans or greens).

I stopped by their store yesterday afternoon and got a new pair of circular knitting needles and two hanks of the approved wool blend yarn.  I started on the pattern last night after dinner and I completed the ribbing before the dogs started going crazy over the fireworks noise.   I’ve never knitted in the round before, which is what this pattern calls for, so I’m learning a new skill, too.

Fast knitters can probably complete a cap in 4 hours, and, depending on your gauge, one hank of yarn will make 2 caps.

Please consider making a helmet liner, or recruiting someone to do so.  Visit The Yarn Shoppe’s website to find out more information.

This is one small way to let those who give so much for our great country know we care and think about them daily.

Boise Basin Quilt Show

Well, I thought I had written about the upcoming Boise Basin Quilter’s quilt show…and, now that the event has come and gone this past weekend, I guess I can write a little something!

Not only was the show fun, I bought a ticket to hear the lecture by Marianne Fons, from Fons and Porter’s Love of Quilting.  She was quite entertaining and I even got to get a picture taken with her beforehand.  I didn’t bring my own camera, as I didn’t realize there was going to be a Meet ‘n Greet, so someone else took the picture for me.  I’ll have to post it when I get it.

I had two quilts in the show and got some solid (+) Good ratings.  All constructive criticisms were in line with my own perceptions and expectations, which I think is a good thing because then I know I’m on the same track as the judges.  I am also very happy to be able to finally post a picture of the Happy Quilt!  Once I get a closeup of the quilting, I'll post a picture of that, too, as it turned out quite well and you can't see the variegated thread or the design in this photo.

One particularly nice comment that I just *have* to relay, though, was “outside edges impressively straight and square”.  Woo Hoo!

Now that the show is over I can concentrate on the lone star customer quilt that is still on the frame.  Almost done, but the free motion design in the star part is giving me a hard time, I can’t seem to get it right….and she wants it back!   Can’t say I blame her, I’ve had it quite awhile.

Not all has been procrastination, though.  My DH tore his rotator cuff in his left shoulder last week, I re-tweaked my back a bit over the weekend, and the dog went in for a cyst removal and major dental surgery.  So, it was a rough week.

Then the dog had to wake me up this morning at 2AM and I couldn’t get back to sleep.  So, I’ve been up since 2:30AM…and I’m going to bed now.

A Place for the Onions

I finally got my garden planted.  Not that I didn't have a few challenges along the way, however.  You see, here in Boise the weather has been very chilly, windy, and downright undesirable, as far as spring goes.  I am a fair weather gardner, however my procrastination has been rewarded!  Those serious gardeners, who actually planted when they were supposed to this spring, are re-planting, spending the same time in the nursery that I was looking for plants this weekend and not any further ahead then I am.  Whew, off the hook for this year!

Before I started on this journey though,  I confirmed with the local nursery that it wasn't too late to plant.  Mind you, I am planting in June, which is at least a month later than when I planted last year, and I really felt like I didn't get much produce at all last year; I didn't even can anything!  We have really missed the lack of canned goods, too, I can tell you.

So, radiating with the afterglow of a 50% off the edible plants sale, I started calling around for a rototilling service, as DH strained his ankle working last week.  I was lucky enough to find someone who would come on Saturday and he did a great job!  E-mail me if you would like his contact information, as I definitely recommend his services.

With the soil freshly tilled, I started my early-morning journey to planet the garden.  I bent over and reached for a T-shirt on a lower shelf and…CRACK…. I threw out my back.  All I could think of was “this is not how I planned to spend my day”.  DH to the rescue, as he offered to "help" me with the garden and ended up planting everything where I told him to plant it.  With the new space I had rototilled, I was able to make room for one more tomato plant and two cucumber plants for which DH pre-dug the holes.

Fast forward beyond two days of intense chiropractic care and I am now walking and being very careful of how I move, although that is fading fast.  I stopped at Lowe's tonight to get a sprinkler head replacement and came out with the additional items I needed for the garden, plus a pack of candy onions.  I have never grown onions before, so I'm interested to see how they turn out.  Because DH had helped me carefully lay out the other plants, I had to come up with a creative solution for planting the onions.  I ended up making a "corner L-bracket" configuration of the onions around a jalepeno pepper plant, which I think will work out just fine.

I decided that I should call my garden “The Salsa and Pickle Patch” because I have planted the majority of the ingredients for both salsa and pickles.  This year though, if the peppers don't grow I am giving up on them!

Why so quiet?

I haven’t posted anything in quite awhile, as I’ve had my head down and just plowing away.  I get focused like that, just want to get to a good stopping place, and then, if I’m not careful, I start another row, another block, another stitch, another…something.

So, what have I been working on?  The Boise Basin Quilters quilt show is coming up and I have submitted 2 entry sheets for quilts.  The actual quilts are due to be turned in on June 5th.  I’m putting the binding on one of them now, and the other is the Happy Quilt, which still needs to be quilted!  At least I’ve picked out the thread, batting, backing and quilt pattern for that one, but I need to find time to get it done!

I’ve also been working on quilting a customer’s Lone Star quilt.  It’s not your typical “home-y” colors that most people think of, it’s purple, dark grey and light grey, and it’s gorgeous!  I’m taking my time on it, as I’m using 2 colors of thread on top, and a different color of thread on the bottom, which means I have to do a thread change and I am very particular about the back thread not showing through.  The top threads are a bit different in weight, so each time I change the threads, I have to re-calibrate the tension, which means I want to minimize how often I change threads!

I’ve also been working on a way to make several lap / baby quilts at once.  I have a customer who is interested in buying them, so this needs to be an efficient enterprise.  I’ve learned a lot in the process (I should probably write those lessons down, huh?) and have been quite thrilled with the results.  I’ve used the Valentine pantograph from Willow Leaf on the first two, and will be considering other designs as well.  I think this will definitely work for some Bronco quilts, too!

A batting sampler quilt is in the works, too!  I purchased 20” squares of Pellon’s Legacy batting at Innovations last year and have been meaning to put this together since then, but never got around to it.  I finally decided how I wanted to do this and was able to find some really nice fabric on sale, now it’s almost all cut and ready to sew together.

I’ve recently setup a wholesale account with Sulky thread as well as received some thread samples from Fil-Tec in the mail.  I got to see some of the Sulky Blendables for the longarm machines at my last networking meeting and I really liked how it felt, and it was gorgeous!

Fil-tec makes Glide thread, and I’ve heard that Glide is wonderful!  I’ll be testing it out on these samples, too, and will report how I like it.  I haven’t gotten any of the Sulky thread yet, but I will probably be able to get some before the project is ready to quilt, so I’ll be able to show off quite a few of my threads.  They are as fun to collect as fabric!  I’ll post photos of the sampler when that is finished, but for now I’d better get back to finishing my quilt show projects.

Upcoming plans

I wish I were home today, as it is raining and gray outside, the perfect sewing weather!  I need to make up some time, as I did not quilt this weekend, as planned.  Instead, I updated both my husband’s and my websites, www.GriffinDrywall.com and www.ArtisanAtHeart.com

I am excited that I conquered the challenge of a new piece of software, as well as how the new FAQs now display in an accordion style!  There is still a lot of work left to do for my site, specifically getting the store back up and running and configuring it to use PayPal, but that is the nature of the beast!

I am also looking at submitting an application for one of the local farmer's markets to sell my quilts.  The table fee is quite reasonable, and I don't have to commit for the full season up front, which is a concern since I don’t have a large inventory of quilts to sell yet.

One reason I haven’t posted much lately is that  I have been working on testing a particular pattern to see if I can make some quilts in a production style method, while still maintaining quality, and I have been very pleased so far.  I think I can have several lap/baby sized quilts completed in 2-3 weeks, which will make having a table at the market feasible, as well as showing some larger quilts for customers to order in their own colors.

So, I have lots of quilting plans, not to mention normal “life” plans.  I feel very blessed to have so much to look forward to.  I hope to also achieve balance in my approach, enjoying the entire journey and appreciating the experiences with the busy-ness that can be so all-consuming.

American Hero Quilt Finished!

I finished the first quilt top that American Hero Quilts has sent me with a pantograph called Star Spangled, from DesignsByVickie.com.  It was a bit more challenging than I anticipated, since it has a lot of points and changes in direction, but I think it came out OK for a first try.  I will definitely use it again!  I used  gold King Tut cotton thread on the top and  gold Sew Fine! on the back.   I’ll be sending them off as soon as I get a box and print a label.

I’ll be doing more quilting this weekend, to get ready for the BBQ Quilt Show coming up in June.  Submission forms are due May 20th, so I need to get busy!

Bonus quilt!

During the flurry of activity of making the Happy Quilt, I made several more blocks to “make it bigger”…I always want a bigger quilt!….and then it just didn’t look right, it had WAY too much going on!
So, the new blocks came off the design board and the Happy Quilt became what it is today…and unfinished top!  Not that I haven’t been working on it, mind you.  I have the thread, quilting pattern, batting and backing picked out, I just need to seam the backing fabric together to get it ready to quilt.  For some reason, that always takes me a long time!
In the meantime, my copy of Quiltmaker magazine arrived last week…with a wonderful pattern inside by Scott Murkin called the Swirlabout!  I immediately went back to my left over Happy Quilt blocks and re-arranged them from Happy Quilt 2, which I felt was uninspiring, to the adapted arrangement also offered in the magazine, called Whirligiggle.  Click on the Whirligiggle link to get the downloadable pattern from Quiltmaker.
 





Here are the two versions of the quilt, same blocks, just reversed to show the negative of the other; squint at them if you don’t see it.  I’ve decided how I will sew them together, but I’m interested in hearing which one you like best!

Progress to Date

Quilting:  My “need to quilt” count now is 3 customer, 3 personal, and 1 American Hero quilts to quilt.  Backing to be seamed together for 3 of these quilts.
Tops:  This new bonus top needs to get sewn together before the blocks start falling off, or get taken off, the design board so I can use it again, and I have two Bronco quilts in process on which I want to see further progress.
Blocks:  I finished my donation blocks for the upcoming quilt show.  I cut fabric to help out with making a wedding quilt.  I have star blocks from a Pass The Bag event that are still sitting in the bag.  Those won’t make it into a real quilt for awhile yet, I’m sure.
Looks like it’s going to be a fun, and busy, weekend!