Thoughts About Quilting, Part 3

Now that I'm home again, I can pick up my quilting series where I left off. :) After you have chosen your pattern and your colors, the next step is piecing.

There are lots of methods for piecing -- hand piecing, strip-piecing, chain-piecing, paper piecing, too name a few -- but the two I am most familiar with, and find easiest, are hand-piecing and strip-piecing.

The biggest difficulty with hand piecing is that you have to draw a a seam allowance to follow on the wrong side of the fabric. That is the only way you can make sure your seams will line up. It sounds like a lot of trouble and, at first, it is awkward, but once you find a system for cutting the pieces out and marking them as you go, it becomes easy. The quickest way I found was to make a plastic template. You can buy template plastic at any sewing/crafts store. Cut it the exact size of the square your working with and then use an Exacto knife to cut a quarter-inch seam allowance on the inside. You are left with a quilting "cookie-cutter" that you can lay on each piece of fabric and trace seam allowances with. Here are templates and fabrics I used in my wedding ring quilt. If you look closely, you can see where I traced the seam allowances.

Strip piecing is a little more complicated, but in the end, it makes assembling the quilt go much faster. You begin by cutting long strips of fabric.
Sew them together by machine. Hand stitching isn't taunt enough for this. The pattern will call for different widths and different arrangements of strips to be sewn together. Then, you cut the long, sewed strips, into narrow strips. To make the block, you sew the narrow strips together in different combinations. This is a really fun way to quick. I am looking forward to making another quilt using this method.

Of course, you can simply sew each piece together by machine if you prefer. My first two wall-hangings were done this way and my first quilt, the blue quilt, was strip-pieced. I was having so much trouble making my seams meet when it came time to join blocks, that I decided to try piecing by hand out of desperation. I loved it. I had so much more control over each seam and never had to worry about stretching the fabric or getting a gigantic knot in the back to untangle. ( You can see I am not the best of friends with a sewing machine.) Has anyone else ever tried hand sewing? I'd love to hear about your projects!!

Spring Vacation

This vacation was all I could ask of a vacation -- totally relaxing. I had just enough to do to keep me from boredom and just little enough to do that I could feel completely rested and unhurried. I checked a stack of books out from the library before we left, laughing at myself because I knew I would never read any of them. However, I haven't read as much since I started my job and I was absolutely starved for hours of uninterrupted reading. I finished two books that week and got halfway through a third one! So fun! The first two were lighter, children's books that I enjoyed a lot. No matter if you are two or twenty-two, it is always great to read a a simple children's story and just -- enjoy it!! The third is one of the best suspense/mysterious novels I have read in ages. And I had never even heard of it until I saw it recommended by someone on a message board. It's not on any of my classic book lists, even though the author was a contemporary of Dickens and the back of the book cover says that it outsold Dickens when it was published. The name of it is The Woman In White by Wilkie Collins. I am about three-fourths finished with it now, and can't wait to see how it ends. I hope there is a good movie version of it.



As you can tell, I took lots of pictures on vacation -- probably over a hundred, so now I have the fun/aggravation of uploading/editing/printing/organizing them in my free time. But, I ask for that problem when I take that many pictures.



One day when we were there, Aunt Sherry took me, Gabrielle, and my cousins Kristin and Emily, to the mall shopping. That was a fun day. We went out to eat, then shopped the entire mall. We didn't really buy that much, of course, I think each of us ended up with a new shirt each, but we went in lots of shops and had a good time. We came across one store with gorgeous prom dresses, so we went in and tried on one. The store also bridal gowns that were stunning. I didn't try on a dress there, but in another store, Aunt Sherry insisted that I try one on. So I picked out a long rose pink one with silver sparkles. It was fun to play Cinderella. Kati (my six year old cousin) would have absolutely loved it if she had been with us.




We're back at home now and back to our own routine. It's good to back in our own home but we still miss our "other" home and our family and friends there.

Vacation pictures....

The dogwoods and all the other spring flowers were in full bloom when we first drove in. Our first weekend there was so cold, though! I didn't take any pictures when the blooms were at their best. The second weekend was much warmer, but the flowers were beginning to die.

This is the pond at my aunt's house. And these are her azaleas.

This little dog would be my aunt's dog Mallory.

And here is Gabrielle at Grandpa's house. She doesn't care for this picture of her, but I think the lighting turned out really neat.

Happy Birthday, Princess!!

My sister started the whole idea of her. She had always wanted a dog. I wasn't too enthusiastic. After all, we were living between two states (like we still are). It just didn't seem practical to add a dog into the picture. However, she convinced our parents to let her get a Shetland Sheepdog.
We don't remember now how it was that she chose this particular breed. She probably saw it on one of her favorite Animal Planet shows. At any rate, we searched the classified ads until we found an advertisement for sheltie pups -- at a town an hour away. We almost didn't find the house. It was in a complicated subdivision and the directions we'd been given over the phone were confusing. After we circled the same section for half an hour, my dad was ready to give up, when I had the idea to turn down one last road. We did and found the right house at last.

My sister was only ten years old. She all but ran out of the car and into the house -- and if you knew how shy she was, you'd know she was really excited. I heard her squeal "Awwwww!" and followed as fast as I could. The furriest little cream colored fuzzball with floppy ears and little white paws was bouncing all over the living room. Gabrielle and I ran in circles trying to catch her, but she wiggled away every time. She was the cutest little thing I'd ever seen and I was as happy as Gabrielle when she went home with us.

She was so cute playing in the yard that day. Anytime she was still for a minute, she would curl up and start to nod off to sleep. Then, before two minutes had passed, she was bouncing away again. That night, of course, she cried and cried. We were trying to train her to stay in one particular room at night by herself, but somewhere around three in the morning, I had to go get her. I went downstairs, sat on the floor and put her in my lap. She immediately curled up in a little furry ball and fell asleep.

That was seven years ago. She went through all the chewing, digging, can't-possibly-stay-where-I'm-supposed-to stages and now she's just a good little dog. She loves to go for rides in an old doll stroller and she always wags her tail when she sees me. When she senses I'm feeling blue, she sits down beside me and lays her head on my knee. When I go for a walk, she runs after me to go too. Now I'm really, really glad my sister wanted a dog seven years ago. :)

Home Again!!

We are back home again! I've got lots of pictures and posts for this week!

Vacation!!

Tomorrow, we leave for a week long vacation to visit family. I am really looking forward to it. Hopefully, I'll get a chance to post while I'm gone, but if not, I'll be back in about few days!!

Thoughts About Quilting, Part 2

Choosing Your Colors and Layout

This step requires more thought and preparation than any other. I spend weeks sorting through my fabrics to make sure I have the perfect color combinations before I begin a quilt. It is always best to pick a color palette and stick to it. Two-color quilts are the easiest to buy for by far, so if you are new to quilting, that's definitely something to consider. But, if you have lots of scrap fabrics that you would like to make into a quilt, it's still fairly easy to get a pretty color palette going. When you are working with scraps, remember to keep your fabrics in the same color family. If most of your fabrics are pastel, sort out the dark colors. If most of your fabrics are dark, rich tones, sort out any bland or pale colors. When you have all your scraps sorted, it's time to go shopping!
This week, I'll use a nine-patch block as an example. It is the easiest quilt block and a great one for beginners. All the blocks are constructed in the same way, but repeating two fabric patterns:

Prints on the outside, prints on the inside. I prefer to have a print and a solid in each square. When you shop for fabrics, try to find solids which bring out the a color in each of your prints. Then, if you have any solids, try to find prints that work well with them.
When you have all your fabrics chosen, the next step is to choose the layout. The nine-patch can be lain out many way and each makes a dramatically different quilt. My blue quilt repeated the same square over and over, so laying the squares side by side created an interesting pattern. You can hardly tell where on block ends and the other begins!

My spring quilt used an Around-the World pattern. The blocks are arranged in a diamond shape from dark to light to dark to light again. It's a more complicated layout.
This quilt uses a diagonal layout. See how the same block travels diagonally across the quilt? This would be a good pattern for a beginner.
The simplest layout of all is to sew lattice strips between each block.

Like I said, this is my favorite part of quilting, so have fun with it! If you have a dark fabric that you really want to work into a pastel scrap quilt, throw in a few more darks to balance it out and try different fabrics until you make it work. It's your quilt after all - your fabrics, your memories. With a little planning, you turn any stockpile of miscellaneous fabrics into a beautiful quilt!

Charlton Heston 1924-2008

Last night, we lost one of the greatest actors of all time, Charlton Heston. He starred in the epic classic Ben-Hur among many other great movies. He held conservative political views and campaigned for conservative candidates. He was president of the National Rifle Association and received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian honor.

"Charlton Heston was seen by the world as larger than life. He was known for his chiseled jaw, broad shoulders and resonating voice, and, of course, for the roles he played," Heston's family said in a statement. "No one could ask for a fuller life than his. No man could have given more to his family, to his profession, and to his country."

He was a handsome, talented actor and a good man who stood for what he believed in. We will always remember him.

Sense and Sensibility --Masterpiece Theatre

Thursday, I finally watched the new Sense and Sensibility. It had been so long since the last new movies that I almost forgot it was coming on. I was excited to see it, but a little skeptical, too. The old S&S with Emma Thompson and Kate Winslet is one of my favorite movies. It would be very hard to improve on. Still, I had heard a lot of good reviews, most saying this version was even better than the Emma/Kate version, so I couldn't wait to see if it really was.



The first fifteen minutes of the film felt like watching the exact same movie, only with different faces and voices -- and another unnecessary scene at the very beginning before the credits. The dialogue was the same almost word for word. I know they were based on the same book, but they should have changed it around a little. I like Mrs. Dashwood very much and Elinor, also. No one, however, will ever be Marianne for me but Kate Winslet.

Anyway, there were a lot of things that I really liked. I liked the new Colonel Brandon so much! I also liked Edward Ferrars. I was used to Hugh Grant and Alan Rickman in those roles, but never particularly liked either one of them. I didn't like the new Willoughby at all. He didn't strike me as anything like the romantic hero Willoughby is supposed to appear to be. In this version, you can't imagine why Marianne would prefer him to Colonol Brandon except that he's a little younger.



I think they have a good beginning for the movie. I missed the little scenes that show Elinor is still thinking of Edward and Willoughby's departure wasn't as dramatic. I'm looking forward to the second part next week.

Just Some Random Ranting

Monday, I woke up in a bad mood. You know, one of those days where you're grouchy when you wake up and from that moment on everything seems to go wrong. It was my day off from work and I wanted to sleep late. My mom woke me up before I was ready to wake up. She wanted me to go to the store with her to help her find some things. So, I had to get up, get dressed, make myself at least somewhat presentable, and go out in the rain. I was not very pleasant. When we came home, we began spring cleaning the living room. First I went upstairs to get the vacuum cleaner. It was downstairs. So, I went downstairs, grabbed the vacuum, and hauled it up the stairs. I realized after I plugged it in that I had taken the vacuum with the broken belt -- in other words, the one that doesn't work. So, I dragged it back downstairs, found the correct vacuum, and took it back upstairs so I could vacuum my room and the stairs. It was that kind of day all around. I never did get into a better temperment until after supper, when I could sit down and relax.

Yesterday, I had to work. I was only scheduled a light week this time and I was talking to some other girls about having so few hours. One of them asked if I would cover for her Saturday because she wanted to play in her team's softball game. I told her I would. After all, I didn't have that many hours that week and I was going to be off today. Only a few hours after I settled this with her, the manager paged me and asked if I would like to work today. Oh boy. So, I worked Tuesday, today, and will also work Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. I'll have Sunday off, then I work Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. This has just not been my week. Next Friday, we are leaving to go on vacation. Believe me I am counting down the days. I need a nice, relaxing break so bad!!