One foot in front of the other & Stage 8

I managed to get my 3+ miles in again last night. The first mile is hard, then I get moving pretty good. The last 1/4 mile is up a steep hill so all I can think is to just put one foot in front of the other.

Stage 8 is 50" x 42" and made from my hand dyes. I again quilted it with Sulky rayon threads with the thread matching the fabric.



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Sad, but true

I have gotten a little more done on this baby blanket, but no sewing this week. I decided I need to get moving and get some stamina built up for working at Miller's Dry Goods in Charm, Ohio for their anniversary sale May 7 and 8. Fabric, patterns, notions, and books will be 30% off and we will be busy. I get to work one of the cutting counters and will be standing 8 to 10 hours. I have a job that I sit all day and my legs have gone to mush! So my goal is to start walking between 2 1/2 to 3 1/2 miles every night. I started Monday this week and so far so good except I am wiped out so no sewing has occured. I did do a load of laundry, but I didn't think anyone would want to see a picture of that! I figure by the middle of next week I will start to feel better, the blisters on my little toes will be healed, and I will be able to have the stamia to get a little sewing done before bedtime.

Busy weekend

I got the rest of the pieces cut out for the brown and pink quilt. I did get a few blocks pieced. I am using a liberated method so the stars will not be exactly the same. I just have to line up each block so I don't get the points going in the wrong direction.



I spent Saturday afternoon at a baby shower. I had to make a bag to put the scrappy pink quilt that I posted a couple of weeks ago - I didn't have any wrapping paper so I made a bag. I also made a bag with yellow monkeys on it for the yellow zig zag quilt.

Below is a small clip of the Battle of the band my nephew was in Saturday night. It is the beginning of "Voodoo Child" by Jimi Hendrix. They are 6th graders that have been playing together for 4 or 5 years. Yes, that means they started when they were in the first grade! The clip is not very good - I was too far away - But they won! They beat 5 other bands that ranged from a band that had been together for only 8 months to a high school boys to a death metal band. They won a huge trophy and a prime spot in the Cuyhoga Falls Rockin' on the River Festival this summer.

I made 100 of these cord tamers for my brother, M, who is now the chief rodie, technician, and production crew for his son's band Retro. M use to tour years ago with my other brother B. You would not believe how many mic and electrical cords they need to put on a show. Pull the hook and loop apart and place one end of the extension cord between the hook and loop and then press together so the cord is sandwiched between. Wind the cord up. Then wrap the long loop piece around the cord onto the hook piece and now you have a cord nicely wrapped and easy to store.

One block done

This is the first block for the pink and brown baby quilt. The finish size right now is 9 1/2 x 11. I may adjust and recut the blocks because the porportions are not quite right. It seems the direction I am heading is a quilt that is too long for the width. My goal this weekend is to get all the blocks made and the top back and batting pinned and ready for quilting. I also need to make a bag to put the pink scrap quilt in. The bag will serve as the gift wrapping.

I have added today a short video clip of me machine quilting. My ex-cousin by marriage shot it for me very quickly. I needed it for an art show that I was participating last December at the Akron Art Museum. I had a feeling people were going to be asking me how I did the quilting on the quilts I was displaying and I was right. I played the video many times. Tonight is the battle of the bands that was posponed from last Friday due to the snow storm. I am going to try and take video and post it so that is why I posted the video of me machine quilting. I needed to see if would work - that is if I could actually post a video!


Have a great and productive weekend.

Another project

The daughter of a woman I work with is having a baby and D asked if I would make her a quilt. "Sure! Of course! What color?" I said. D said "Pink and brown." All righty then. I ripped thru my pink and blue stash last year and cut most of it up into 4" squares. I just wanted to reduce my stash of older fabrics. So last night I did find some larger pieces of pink. I have quite a few leftover browns from some other quilts I did last year.


Here is the box of pink scraps I have left. I will come up with something. I am not going to buy any fabric for this. As Tim Gunn says "Make it work!"

Stage 7

This is a piece that I explored getting down to using the least amount of fabrics, but the piece would still have complexity. I used two of my favorite hand dyed fabrics, improvisationaly cut and pieced. I free motion quilted it with Sulky rayon. It is 30.5" wide and 17" heigh. It is now hanging in my foyer and it makes me smile when I see it.

Three for three

Three for three is for this year I have gotten three baby quilts done before the babies arrived. Actually, I am going to say four for four because I took one of the quilts I had in my stash (see the picture above) and gave it to a fellow I work with. So here is the finished yellow zig zag, the back and a close up of the quilting.

Here is the back. I just used the leftover pieces from cutting the blocks from the strips. I like it!

Here is a shot of the quilting. It takes me between 5 and 6 hours to quilt a baby sized quilt - 40" x 53". I like lots of quilting!


It snowed some this weekend, but it didn't stick to the roads. The battle of the bands was cancelled Friday because all the schools were closed. It has been reschedule for this Friday. I am going to try and take a some video of my nephew's band and post it.