Another Bunny Quilt

I had to work late tonight and then do the Speed Racer mad dash to Fed Ex and the post office with only about two minutes to spare. Seriously, I handed my packages off to the postman outside the post office as he was emptying out the mailbox for the last time this evening. After all that, I'm feeling terminally unmotivated to quilt or blog this evening, so I thought I'd just show you what I've been working on lately. I have one small applique piece to add and then I can pin this top and start quilting. Do you think I can muster up the enthusiasm and energy to do that tonight? NO! Apparently not! Do I know that Easter's going to be here in just a few days? Yes, as a matter of fact I do. Maybe the quilting fairies will come tonight while I slumber and take care of it for me. One can only hope!

If the stars align and magic occurs, this quilt will grace my Easter table. Somewhat ironically, it's doubtful any FOOD will actually grace my Easter table this year, because neither of our kids will be home and we'll be going over to my in-laws for an Easter lunch. My husband talked to his mom, and they agreed we'd bring dessert. My husband's talking about making cupcakes; I'm thinking Marie Callender's is right on the way and they make an awesome Kahlua Cream Pie. What's Easter, after all, without some grown-up chocolate? The Double Cream Lemon Meringue Pie doesn't sound too bad either.

Now that I think about it, I have a feeling that if I could just bury my face in a Kahlua Cream Pie right NOW, I might feel a little more enthusiastic this evening. But no, I'll wait until Sunday. Tonight I have two cats to battle for rights to the bathroom--a nice hot bath sounds awfully good!

Ask Kim: Quilting

Several of you asked about my quilting, so I thought I'd talk a little bit about that tonight. Actually, what I REALLY wanted to do was to take a bath, but I didn't want to be the evening's floor show for "the girls"--

Hopefully, by the time I've posted today's blog entry, they'll have gotten bored and vacated the bathroom--it's really too small for all three of us.

Yes, I do my own quilting. When I started quilting, I thought I'd be selling out if I didn't do it all myself--it wouldn't really be "mine." Since then, I've kind of gotten over that mindset and wouldn't mind sending a few quilts out for quilting occasionally, but I really can't afford to do that and still buy fabric. And food. And gas. Well, you know what it costs to keep a home and family going these days. So, no, I just can't see spending money to send my quilts out to be quilted.

Yes, I quilt on a domestic machine. I have a Bernina I use for piecing, but a few years ago, I found that my tension wasn't very stable on free motion quilting. I could start off just fine and find later on that the bobbin tension had gotten out of whack somewhere along the way--and that led to having to take out some of the quilting and start over. I hate that. I took the Bernina into the shop and they fixed that problem somewhat, but I still wasn't 100 percent pleased. So I started looking around at other machines and decided to buy a Juki for the quilting part of quilt making. Here's my baby--

There are a number of reasons I went with the Juki.

(1) Jukis have a nice, large throat area, so quilting a king size quilt isn't too insane an idea. Here's a photo of the Juki next to the Bernina, so maybe you can see how much larger the throat area is--

(2) Jukis can be used with a frame system, if I ever want to go that route. Right now, I don't really have the room and I don't feel it's necessary, but at some point, I may get tired of having to switch out machines every time I want to do something different. For now, though, I just like the idea that it's versatile.

(3) Jukis are mechanical rather than computerized. This means that repairs can be done at any sew and vac shop instead of taking it in to a dealer or a more expensive shop that specializes in computerized sewing machines. That in turn means repairs are likely to be less expensive. But I've had the machine for a couple years now, and so far, so good. I wouldn't use the Juki for piecing, though, because it has a very industrial, "chunky" feel to it--I don't think my piecing would be quite as accurate on the Juki.

(4) Jukis don't cost an arm and a leg. I actually bought mine through eBay, and although I was a little hesitant to buy that way, I talked to a number of people and checked sellers' feedback and decided to take the plunge. At the time, the Juki I have was retailing for about $900. I made a "Best Offer" and got it for around $700 with shipping included.

Someone asked me the other day about marking quilts. I don't like marking quilts very much. If I can figure out a quilting design that doesn't require marking, all the better! I quilted the Gardener's Touch free hand by just outlining the floral elements in the blocks and continuing out the leaf pattern, "drawing" with my needle and using variegated thread. Yes, that does take some practice and I'm by no means an expert. But as I do it more and more, I think I'm getting better at it all the time. Like anything else, it takes practice.

When I DO mark, though, I like to use a regular lead pencil on lighter colors. I've never had a problem washing it out so far. The pencil marks seem to show up well and pencils are readily available. On darker fabrics, I use white marking pencils. The ones by Patricia Campbell are my favorite. Chalk is nice, but it disappears too quickly and leaves white powder all over the place, so I don't use it very often, but sometimes it's the only reasonable alternative if I have mixed lights and darks to mark on.

The only other thing I can think of that you may want to know is the type of batting I use. I used to use Warm and Natural because I liked it okay and I could get it at JoAnn's with a coupon, so the price was right. Over the last few years, I've switched to using Hobbs 80/20 most of the time. I like that little bit of loft and drape that the 20 percent polyester gives quilts. Occasionally I've purchased other batting for a specific purpose. For instance, I quilted THIS quilt with a very thin batting so it's a nice summer weight.

Did I answer all your questions about my quilting? Do you think my audience has gotten bored and left the bathroom yet? Time for me to go check. Feel free to ask me questions any time, and I'll try to answer!

Gardener's Touch

I've finished quilting the Gardener's Touch quilt but I still need to add the binding. I thought I'd show you how it's coming along and give you the cutting directions. As you can see, it's currently undergoing rigorous cat-approval testing.

I'm going to assume that anyone reading my blog who wants to make some version of this quilt knows the basic construction techniques and will just need stuff like cutting sizes.

In making this quilt, I used a panel of the Thimbleberries Gardener's Touch floral squares, two Gardener's Touch charm packs, the border fabric, and the background fabric. I bought 1-1/2 to 2 yards of the background fabric and didn't really keep track of how much was needed, but I would guess it was somewhere around a yard. For the border fabric, I believe I used 1-1/2 yards.

Of course, you can use any floral fabric you want, but if you use the Gardener's Touch panel, I should mention that there are 15 different floral blocks. Since this quilt uses only 13 floral squares, I decided not to use the two blocks with white backgrounds because I thought they'd blend into the alternate blocks and look funny. I'll use those extras for throw pillows or something. For this quilt, I cut the floral blocks at 7-1/2".

For the alternate blocks, I made 12 blocks. (Sorry the photo came out kind of dark, but I think you can see what I'm talking about.) Each block starts with a center square cut 2-1/2" (cut 12 for 12 blocks).

For the middle round, the corner squares are cut at 2" (cut 48 for 12 blocks). The rectangular background pieces are cut at 2" x 2-1/2" (cut 48 for 12 blocks).

For the outer round, the corner squares are cut at 1-1/2" (cut 48 for 12 blocks). The rectangular background pieces are cut at 1-1/2" x 5-1/2" (cut 48 for 12 blocks).

After I assembled the alternating floral and pieced blocks for the center, I added a pieced border consisting of two rounds of floral squares and background rectangles to continue the chain out a bit. I tried writing out the sizes for these, but it seemed awfully confusing for purposes of this post. If this is something you want to do, email me and I'll try to get those measurements for you.

Finally, I added a floral border--I cut the border at 8" but have trimmed it down a little after quilting so it's 7"--the same size as the center blocks.

Happy quilting!

St. Patrick's Day is Coming!

I've been totally lazy today--sleeping in, doing a little reading, sleeping a little more, and quilting a lot. I was feeling a little too lazy to post to my blog, but then I remembered a St. Patrick's Day joke someone sent me, and I wanted to share it with you. Since St. Patrick's Day falls on Monday, I plan to make corned beef tomorrow. How about you? Do you celebrate? Maybe this will get you in the mood!

* * * * *

An Irishman moves into a tiny hamlet in County Kerry, walks into the pub and promptly orders three beers. The bartender raises his eyebrows, but serves the man three beers, which he drinks quietly at a table, alone. An hour later, the man has finished the three beers and orders three more. This happens yet again.

The next evening the man again orders and drinks three beers at a time, several times. Soon the entire town is whispering about the Man Who Orders Three Beers. Finally, a week later, the bartender broaches the subject on behalf of the town.

"I don't mean to pry, but folks around here are wondering why you always order three beers." "'Tis odd, isn't it?" the man replies, "You see, I have two brothers, and one went to America and the other to Australia. We promised each other that we would always order an extra two beers whenever we drank as a way of keeping up the family bond." The bartender and the whole town was pleased with this answer, and soon the Man Who Orders Three Beers became a local celebrity and source of pride to the hamlet, even to the extent that out-of-towners would come to watch him drink.

Then, one day, the man comes in and orders only two beers. The bartender pours them with a heavy heart. This continues as for the rest of the evening he orders only two beers. The word flies around town. Prayers are offered for the soul of one of the brothers.

The next day, the bartender says to the man, "Folks around here, me first of all, want to offer condolences to you for the death of your brother. You know-the two beers and all . . ." The man ponders this for a moment, then replies, "You'll be happy to hear that my two brothers are alive and well. It's just that I, myself, have decided to give up drinking FOR LENT."

Thanks!

Thank you all so much for your kind words of sympathy and support concerning our burglary. Many of you mentioned the feeling of having been violated in the aftermath of a burglary. Oddly enough, I don't really seem to feel that so much this time. Back a couple years ago (okay, a LOT of years ago!), when I was 20 and had my first apartment on my own (post divorce from the first husband), I came home from work one evening to find someone had broken in and stolen my 10-speed bicycle and my TV. I could see they had gone through my things--closet doors, drawers, and cupboards were left open. It was a huge shock! I remember that somehow I replaced the TV--I can't recall if I bought a new one or was given a hand-me-down--but I never was able to replace the 10-speed. On that occasion, I most definitely felt the sense of violation.

I don't know why the feeling isn't so strong this time. Age? The fact that nothing quite so valuable was taken? Or maybe it's simply that aside from the mess in our bedroom, although I could tell drawers and cupboards throughout the house had been opened, nothing was disarranged, and everything was neatly closed--or nearly closed. Given the state of the bedroom as opposed to the rest of the house, I can't help but think there were two burglars and one was much neater than the other. Given the fact that the window they came in was so small, I can't help but think the neater burglar was female. Maybe that's why it doesn't feel quite so bad this time. I don't know, really, but I DO know we're very grateful it wasn't worse than it was.

This has been a long, hard week--thank goodness the weekend is here! Work was tough with deadlines and pressure. I've been sick with something--swollen gland/sore throat/sore jaw and ear on the left side. In fact, I was hoping to leave work and come home sick the afternoon the burglary occurred, but there was too much to get done at the office--and as it turned out, that's probably a good thing! I had quilt classes/meetings on two evenings, and as much as I enjoy those, this week I would have been happy to just come home after work instead. Then, of course, the burglary.

Remember Shakespeare's Julius Caesar? Every year around now, I remember the line, "Beware the Ides of March." If you've blocked old Julius and high school English classes out of your mind, the Ides of March is March 15th, and that's when Brutus killed Caesar, as foretold by a seer. Last year, on the Ides of March, we learned that my parents had been in an automobile accident the day before--one year ago today. As a result of that accident, my dad passed away in April last year. All in all, not a real happy week for us here!

So, I've decided to be good to myself this weekend. I'm going to relax and not push myself to get things done. If I don't finish a quilt project, that's okay. If I don't feel like posting a blog entry, that's okay too. Oh, I suspect I probably will do all the "normal" stuff anyway, but I'm going to try my best to not feel I HAVE to do anything except relax and enjoy the weekend. Oh, and make corned beef for my husband, because St. Patrick's Day is just about his favorite holiday!

Although I haven't had a chance to do any quilting the last couple nights and I'm just itching to get into the Sweat Shop, the idea of taking a nice hot bath, putting on my jammies, and climbing into bed with a good book and a couple magazines is mighty attractive. I might just do that tonight!

Tomorrow though . . . . Well, tomorrow, Saturday, March 15th, is National Quilting Day. Did you know? I'm sure I'll celebrate appropriately by spending quite a lot of time in the Sweat Shop. After all, I WOULD like to finish quilting the Gardener's Touch quilt, and I also want to get my other bunny quilt done in time for Easter. And sometime this weekend, I plan to post those cutting directions for the Gardener's Touch quilt, so if you've been waiting for those, DO check back periodically.

But I think I won't worry about shaving tomorrow. Or plucking my eyebrows or my chin hairs. Or all the other many beauty enhancing rituals I often perform on Saturdays. Maybe I'll just sleep in instead. But not too late, because it is, after all, National Quilting Day! I hope you have a wonderful weekend, doing whatever makes you happiest!

The Burglary Saga

Most days, my husband telephones my office at 5 p.m. to say he's gotten home. Tonight I left work a little earlier than usual, at 5:15 p.m., and when I arrived home around 6 p.m., his van wasn't in the driveway. Hummm, I thought, that's odd. Then I remembered he hadn't called me at work.

I gathered up my stuff and got out of the car. I saw then that although the screen door was shut, and front door was open--not too unusual since it was a nice, spring day. I wondered whether my husband had car problems and had someone drop him off at home, or if perhaps our son had borrowed the van. Not thinking too much about it, I went into the kitchen and unloaded my stuff. I poked my head into the garage to see if my husband was there, but he wasn't. I glanced through the sliding glass door onto the patio, but I could hear our dog barking in his run, and I knew if my husband was out back, the dog would be running loose. Ah ha!, I thought--he must be in the bathroom!

Making my way to the back of the house, I saw that the doors of a couple cupboards in my daughter's former room were ajar. I went in and closed them, thinking my husband must have been looking for something. But when I turned toward our bedroom and saw stuff pulled out of all the drawers and strewn all over the floor and the bed, I finally realized what had happened.

About then, I decided maybe I shouldn't be in the house, just in case anyone was still here--although that seemed unlikely. Within about a minute of getting back outside, I saw my husband driving down the street. He had been to the dentist and thought he had mentioned it to me last night, but if he did, I sure don't remember! I told him what I had found and then I went around to the back yard to let the dog out of his run--in case there was still anyone here, Marley could lick him to death, ferocious beast that he is!

Anyway, we called the police after that and tried not to touch much while we waited for them to arrive. We don't keep much of value in the house, but I DID have a $100 bill in one of the drawers in the bedroom--a bit of "bonus" money our mechanic friend had given us when he was able to fix up and sell a car my husband had found for him. I have very little jewelry, but what I have wasn't taken--my wedding band was in an unlikely drawer that I don't think they even searched.

We were actually somewhat surprised at what WASN'T taken. My digital camera was sitting on the desk and that was left. A credit card by the computer was left. None of our TVs, DVDs, stereo equipment, etc., seems to have been touched. In fact, they really seemed to be looking for cash, and if they were hoping for fine jewelry, they didn't find it here! My husband has a prescription for Vicodin and that wasn't taken, so they weren't interested in drugs either. And, of course, they obviously had no appreciation for quilts, fabric, or sewing machines! Obviously uncultured, ignorant types! ROFLOL!

All in all, we were pretty lucky. Oh, and here's what ELSE they left--stuff that wasn't here to begin with: a screw driver/pry tool and a pair of dirty socks. Yuck!

After taking the report, the police left, saying the CSI guy would be by this evening. Sure enough, Mr. CSI Guy showed up about a half hour later, toting his little kit of crime detecting goodies, and snapping on his latex gloves--just like on TV! Since CSI--the TV show--was a rerun tonight, we were entertained by the reality version! This is the window the burglars came in through:

See all that nice black powder? I kind of think there were two burglars; the smaller of the two came in the window and unlocked the door for the larger of the two. Anyway, for all his efforts, Mr. CSI Guy didn't find any prints. We suspected and he confirmed that the burglars probably used those dirty socks to cover their hands while they went through our stuff. I asked him why they would have left their socks and tool here, and he said that's pretty common because then they can't be arrested with "burglary tools" on their persons. Interesting the stuff you learn!

So now I have a mess to clean up and a bunch of things to put away. I guess I'd better get to it! And I still have a few things to check to make sure nothing's missing, but really it doesn't look like it is. But, darn it, I've missed another night of quilting! And that's really the biggest loss!

Winner!

Yep, here it is, post number 400! And we have a winner!

As I've received comments in my email from my blogiversary post, I've moved them into a separate email folder. When I closed down the contest, I had 92 entries. I thought I'd use a random number generator, but when I checked out a few online and "tested" them, I didn't really like the way they generated numbers. So I used the old-fashioned kind of number generator. I cut up pieces of paper and numbered them 0 to 9. I did that with two sets and put them into a ceramic bowl and carried them out to my husband. After setting down a piece of KFC fried chicken and wiping off his greasy fingers, with great ceremony he reached into the bowl and first pulled out a "5" and then pulled out a "2"--the winner was the person who posted (or emailed me directly) the 52nd comment. I know--this is probably the boring part for you, but I just wanted to explain the selection process.

And the WINNER is: PAM A. FROM NY! (Pam1228)

Pam commented:

"Happy Blog a Versary!!! I just found your blog and enjoy your "tales"... so funny!!! Your quilt pieces are just beautiful!"

I guess flattery WILL get you somewhere, Pam!

I can't email Pam directly because the address line says "noreply-comment." Pam please email me with your snail mail address so I can get the bunny quilt mailed out to you. If you click on my blog where it says "view complete profile" in the sidebar and then click on "Email" in the upper left box, you can email me directly.

Thank you all for joining in my Blogiversary celebration! I wish I could send a quilt to each of you, but all I can send you is my thanks and my gratitude for stopping by to visit me in Blogland every so often!

Blogiversary Contest is Closed!

I'm closing the contest to new entries and hope to select and post a winner soon! Unfortunately, we came home from work to find our house had been burglarized--nothing major, we think, but we're waiting for the police to arrive. Argh! At least all my sewing stuff appears to be safe! LOL! I'll fill everyone in on the "excitement" later! And sometime tonight, I'll post a winner, so please check back.

Have You Ever . . .

changed your clothes at the end of a work day, only to find you had been walking around all day with one of those dryer sheets stuck inside your pant leg? No, no, of COURSE I've never done that! But if I had, I imagine it would have felt exactly the way it felt today.

It was the oddest feeling, and on several occasions when I could do so discretely, I touched, patted, and/or looked at the inside back of my left pant leg. Nope, nothing there. Extremely odd!

When I was standing buck naked tonight, drying off after my bath, and I had the same weird feeling, I had to conclude that it must be a muscle or a tendon or something pulling slightly along the back of my calf. Maybe I strained it quilting, 'cause that's about the most exercise I get. I sure hope it goes away soon. I expect I look kinda silly walking down the hallway at work, lifting and shaking my leg every few steps.

Mary's In the House!

The buzz right now seems to be all about Mary--Mary Engelbreit's new fabric line for Moda, that is! I've been a ME addict for years, so I'm pretty excited about the fact that she and Moda got together!

My cow-loving BFF Red Geranium Sharon recently had a Mary giveaway on her blog, and I was sorely disappointed she didn't draw my name. But since my expectations weren't exactly high on that one, I went ahead and ordered myself a jelly roll:

. . . and a length of black-with-white-polka-dotted fabric. I came home today to find it had arrived in my mail along with a couple other goodies.

My love affair with Mary began back sometime around the late 1980s. The Wild Child was little and cute back then (not that she's not cute any more, because she is!) and I came across a darling girly dress pattern and coordinating fabrics by Daisy Kingdom. As it turned out, the fabric was designed by Mary Engelbreit. I bought enough fabric to make two dresses, and I still have a bit left--

Sadly, I found the fabric faded quite a lot when it was washed--and that just about broke my heart seeing those cute little dresses all faded! I don't know if I'll ever use the fabric I have in anything that may need washing, but I'm sure I'll find a use for it one of these days.

Then, as many of you probably remember, several years ago Mary began designing for Cranston. This was not too long after I started quilting, and because I was still shopping for fabric at JoAnn's and WalMart occasionally, I have some of those fabrics in my stash. And I don't mean to say it's a poor quality of fabric, because I don't really think it is. I DO know, though, that very few quilt shops carried it because the other large stores could sell it so much cheaper.

So now Mary's moved on to Moda and is snuggling into the quilt shop shelves, and I'm so happy to see her there! But I'm even happier to see her snuggling into MY shelves! The upcoming Christmas line looks awfully cute too!

And, by the way, did you happen to notice the background of my first few photos? Yes, the rabbit and tulip wallhanging is now bound and ready to be claimed by the lucky winner of my giveaway! If you haven't entered already, scroll on down to my Monday post where I announce my belated blogiversary and leave me a comment. Get your comments in by 6 p.m. Pacific Daylight Time on Thursday, March 13th! I expect to randomly pick a winner and reveal the name between 7 p.m. and 8 p.m.

Happy quilting!