Perfectionism: The Bitchy Stitcher gets it

The Bitchy Stitcher: "A pep talk, in case you need it":

If you make ANYTHING, you are a magician. A quilt, a table runner, a placemat, a block, even just two pieces of fabric sewn together and dropped on the floor—hell, even one piece of fabric cut out of a larger one—none of these things existed in that form until you brought them into being. You are Minerva freaking McGonagall, transmogrifying fabric and thread until it becomes something new, something that, no matter what it looks like or how skillfully it was constructed, is greater than what its parts were before you brought them together. That's magic. That's art.

Go read the whole thing, which also discusses social media's way of making us feel like The WORST, when we are much more likely The Averagest. (Shut up, Blogger, that's totally a word.)

"Friday" "Night" Sew "In" -- Preview

(All the quotes are in title because (A) I started Thursday afternoon, and (B) my apartment is currently suffering from a dearth of cleared flat surfaces, and my folks are out of town, so I did the work at their house. It did involve sewing though.) Here's a preview of the pictures; more to follow:

FWQAL – Status & Plan

I've been participating in the Flickr FWQAL in fits and starts -- I joined in a bit late, came charging out of the gate for my first 30 or so blocks, and then have been producing blocks, shall we say, intermittently since then. Last weekend, I made another block (#59 - Night & Day), photographed some others I'd made in the past few months but never posted, and made a mosaic of the 64 I had completed:

FWQAL: 64 Block Mosaic

Now, I never intended to do all of them; there were some that were practically duplicates, some that seemed more trouble than they were worth, and one that looked too much like a swastika for my taste, but I still didn't feel like I'd made "enough". So, I was talking this over with my therapist, and I actually hit on what feels like a good idea: however many more I get done by the end of this year (2013) is how many are going into the quilt. My general target is 1-2 a week, which would put the block count in the range of 80-100, and I'm planning to set them in a Garden Maze setting, so that, plus borders, should be plenty big enough.
I'm now up to 67, including the one I made last Friday:

FWQAL #059 - Night and Day

FWQAL #074 - Ribbons

FWQAL #056 - Maple Leaf

I feel like I've been working on these forever, so it's comforting to know that there's an end in sight.

FNSI - FWQAL - OMGWTFBBQ

FWQAL #059 - Night and Day, a photo by funkysmama on Flickr.

Oy, this block was a pain! I actually tried making it before by cutting out the pieces using the provided templates, then paper-piecing, and I just couldn't make it work.

This time, I started with the big triangles, then used oversized scraps for the others, which worked, but required a lot of trimming to be done.

While I was working on it, I kept asking myself whether I shouldn't have just put it in the FWQAL "skip" category, but once I finally finished it up, I was glad I did it. It's such a great graphic block.

See what other folks got up to on their Friday Night on Flickr!

FWQAL #080 - Single Wedding Star

Hey, just a quick post to show off the FWQAL block I made last night:


FWQAL #080 - Single Wedding Star

ScrapHappy Saturday!

So, I haven't blogged in million billion years (blame Pinterest).  Anyway, I did finally step away from the virtual and towards the concrete, if only for a few hours, in order to make these blocks:

I'll see if I can get myself to sew/blog some more soon. Thanks for stopping by!

Be sure to stop by Angela's page to see what other folks have done with their teal scraps this week.

FNSI / Think Pink!

Decided to knock off two birds on Friday--1 for just doing Friday Night Sew In, and 1 for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge's final pink Saturday.

Before I could do anything, though, I had to clean up the pile of miscellaneous junk that had accumulated by my sewing area (right by the front door, unfortunately):



I didn't get an "after" photo, so you'll just have to trust that it was improved enough for me to actually work there.

First up was a partially done Farmer's Wife block, #50 Honey's Choice.  I'd gotten the sub-units done (with some wrassling), but hadn't put them all together yet.  This was also the first 5-patch block that I made using my new Marti Michell templates, which worked pretty well.

 

I'm not entirely crazy about the block--not enough contrast, and the colors aren't my favorites, but hey, it's done!

Next up: Disappearing 16 Patch in pink.  This month's challenge had suggested sticking to hot pinks, but I didn't have that much selection, so I went with the pinks I had.

First I laid them out:


Then I moved them around:


Then I told my inner perfectionist that it's a scrap block, so quit fussing & start sewing!  First rows of 4, then all together into a 16-patch, and then cut on the diagonal.




Walla!  Tucked them into the folder with the previously made orange, purple, and blue triangles and patted myself on the back.

I then spent about 15 minutes practicing free-motion quilting--just parallel-ish straight lines, noodled around with an idea for an AAQI quilt, and called it a night.

So that's my first sewing of 2013, and I say yay! In celebration, allow me to share the "Think Pink!" number from Funny Face:

DaGMT 2013 Pledge

Happy 2013, everyone!

I haven't been doing much sewing lately, so my UFO Brain Dump is pretty much unchanged.  In an effort to continue making progress on this, I'm eschewing all swaps, bees, and lottos for the time being, but I am joining Quilting Hottie Haven's Drop and Give Me Twenty! challenge.

No, I will NOT be doing any pushups!  Rather, for the month of February, I'm committing to quilt at least 20 minutes a day, every day.   This is organized by Beth, on her "fun" blog, and there are link-ups and prizes and a flickr group and whatnot and it's open to all, so join in! 

Herein is my DaGMT¹ Commitment:

I, Recovering Perfectionist (aka Funky²'s Mama, aka Jennifer), being of iffy mind and don't-even-ask! body, do solemnly vow to sew (or quilt or iron or cut) for at least twenty (20) minutes each day in the month of February 2013.  I do not set any specific goals³, but my hope is to make noticeable progress on one or more of my many UFOs, with preference given to finishing existing projects.  (I also vow that Beth Helfter is brilliant for coming up with this concept and inspiring me to join.) 

This may (or may not) also mean that I'll be posting more on this here blog.  I also may be doing a 2012 wrap-up post and some more detailed descriptions of the UFOs, but we'll have to see.

¹ Is anyone else hearing "Dang Gummit" when they read the acronym, like we've fallen into a Li'l Abner comic strip?
² Rest her furry little soul!
³ I have enough of those at work.

Design Wall Monday: Grandma's Flower Trellis

(My first time on the Monday design wall! Hi, everyone!)

What's especially pleasing to me is what's NOT on my design wall anymore, which is my CMYKitty quilt, which is ready to be quilted (i.e., folded up & stored in a box).

Anyway, this is my Grandma's Flower Trellis quilt, which needs another 10 blocks and can then be assembled! I already have the White/Green HSTs, so I just need to pick & cut some more pinks.

Check out what other folks are doing this week at Judy Laquidera's Patchwork Times.

UFO Brain Dump

Hi, quilters! Have any UFO's? Well, Leah over at The Free Motion Quilting Project has started UFO Sunday, and I'm joining in. (The "Brain Dump" idea is from David Allen's Getting Things Done.)

I haven't figured out how I'm going to tackle these. There's a method for paying off debts called The Snowball, which basically says you should pick the loan with the smallest balance or the highest interest rate, pay the minimum on all the other loans, and put as much as you can to this one. Once it's paid off, move on to the next larger/lower rate and continue.

As I look over my list, there are some that are pretty close to being done, there are some that would benefit from a concerted effort, but then there are some that I kind of like doing a block or two at a time. I don't know, I'm pretty exhausted just looking at this (and I haven't found the courage to count, BTW).

Anyway, here's what I believe to be a complete list of my UFO's. They're in approximate order from oldest to newest. I'll try to flesh them out / sort them in some meaningful order / annotate in the days & weeks to come.

• CompuServe Mystery Quilt
• Blue/White Log Cabin
• Teal/Burgundy Dragonfly
• CompuServe Geography Swap
• CompuServe Cat Block Swap (1994)
• Curved Log Cabin for Mom & Dad
• Veggie Slide Show
• Hand-Me-Down Rust/Green
• Tessellating Fish
• Veggie Disappearing 9-patch
• Muted Slack & Slash Pillow
• Blue Yellow Brick Road
• Blue Yellow Brick Road Pillow
• Orange Twinkling Star
• 12 Months Sampler
• CMYKitty
• (x+1)(x-1) = x²-1 (Solids)
• Checked Columns (Solids)
• P2 Modern Solids Quilt Along
• Modern Solids Mini
• Grape Tessellating Spirals
• Bali Pops Trip Around The World
• Storm At Sea
• Batik Repaired Rainbows
• Morris Blooming 9-Patch
• Jelly Rolls
  • Stonehenge
  • Connecting Threads
  • Cool Batiks
• Farmer's Wife
• Teal & White Wonky Checkerboards
• Ugly Lotto Triangles
• Log Cabin Star of David
• Mini Ocean Trip Around The World
• Paper-Pieced Autumn Triptych
• Green Stained Glass Mini
• 3x6 Swap Blocks
• Curved Block Lotto blocks
• Tessellating Leaves Mini
• Orange Big Block
• Solid Mini Broken Rainbow
• CompuServe Christmas Swap
• Brown Mini
• Purple Tessellating "Crosses"
• Mini 4-Patch
• Sherry's Roman Stripe
• Miscellaneous Blocks
• Mini Tokyo Subway
• Scrap Quilts
  • Chimney & Cornerstones
  • Disappearing 16-Patch
  • 4-Patch/Double 4-Patch
  • Ticker tape
  • Self-Mitered Strips
• Sock It to Me!
• CMY Pillow / Wall Hanging
• Grandma's Trellis
• Grandma's Jelly Roll 1600
• 6" Blue & White Stars

FNSI - Sept 2012 - CMYKitty

Finally!  Made some real progress on this--it's now ready to quilt (it's in 4 pieces because I'm going to try Marti Michell's quilting in sections method... just as soon as I find where I put the book.)  :)

FNSI Checklist

• Nutritious dinner of Triscuits & x-tra sharp cheddar cheese: consumed 
• Hair: pulled back 
• Hands: washed 
• Refreshing beverage: 1/2 drunk, remaining available as needed 
• Cat: heading to kitchen to get herself some dinner 
• Headphones: Missing. Dang. OK, scratch podcast plan
• Castle rerun for background noise: queued up on TiVo

I'm going in! Cover me!

ScrapHappy Saturday - Yellow

(1st picture shows colors better; 2nd shows quilting better).

So, I actually started this last Saturday, continued to work on it through the week, and finished it up Thursday, but my camera had gone on walkabout, so the pictures, at least, are from today.

I didn't think I had too many yellow scraps, which was accurate (the finished size of this is only 15"x15"; each log is 1/2" wide), but I did have a pretty good variety, since I'd bought a couple of charm packs to round out my yellows for the Tokyo Subway Quilt (alas, still a UFO). Background fabic is just unbleached muslin -- I'm a little sorry I didn't use white, since yellow and white quilts really sparkle, but I've been using white as a background a lot lately, and I just felt the need for something different.

Everything was sewn/quilted by machine, and the circles for the quilting were taken from my cappucino cup.

Check out what other folks have been doing at soscrappy: ScrappyHappy Yellow Day.

Enthusiastically Creative Kid is Enthusiastic, Creative

A 9 year old boy - who built an elaborate cardboard arcade inside his dad’s used auto part store - is about to have the best day of his life.

ZOMGWTFBBQFWQAL!!1!

Oh, look! I made a quilt block!! First sewing I've done in months, and I'm as pleased as punch.

FWQAL 071 - Puss In The Corner

No templates, just rotary cut squares & rectangles, speed-pieced HSTs, and sewn together.

Scrappy Greens

So, true confession time: I made these blocks for so scrappy's Rainbow Scrap Challenge... last year.



ahem. Anyway, I didn't get the photos posted last year, so here they are now. (Not quite to scale, the collage resized some of them.)

I haven't done any quilting in a while -- work got busy, and the mess on my sewing table hit critical mass and exploded*, but I miss it, and I'm still loving lurking around and seeing what other folks are up to.

Here's hoping I'll arrive somewhere on the time-space continuum where I'll be able to do some more quilting!

* This sounds like a metaphor, but it's actually embarrassingly close to the literal truth.

Do I really need this book?

I love buying & reading quilting books, but I think I'm going to take a pass on this one:

Farmer's Wife Quilt-Along Week 8

Hmmm. It seems that I have been doing more sewing than blogging. I'll try to catch up, but I'm not sure how much I even remember about putting these together now!

#17 - Cats + Mice (2nd try)

I liked the first one I made, except that points didn't match in the middle, and apparently I'm haven't recovered enough from my perfectionism to let it go. This started with 4 QST units, and then paper-pieced the rest.

#18 - Century of Progress

Progress, my size 11 foot! What's so progressive about having 12 seams meet up in the middle, I'd like to know! Feels like there's a dried pea in the middle of my block. grumble, grumble I think I made the first version (on the top) using only templates, and it came out OK, but there wasn't enough contrast between the two background yellows to really see the pattern. I meant to do the next version with the same "pinwheel" layout of the background, but accidentally cut my pieces so that half were reversed. I'm happy enough with the the little kites that came out, and I like these colors better.

#29 - Economy

I was frustrated after making my first Century of Progress block, so I wanted something Qwik & EZ. This fit the bill. Can't remember if I used the book's templates or if I just rotary cut the pieces, but either way it worked up nicely. I'm a little sorry I missed an opportunity to use larger scale prints, but I like the finished result.

#48 - Homeward Bound

Again, I was looking for something quick. I'm pretty sure I just rotary cut this one, although I don't really remember much about making it. I do wish I used fabric with a stronger value contrast for the corner squares.

#53 - Jackknife

Ah, Jackknife! This is my current pride & joy -- all rotary cut, no paper piecing. Same color combo as my first Cats & Mice, but much better results. The QST's were speed-pieced, and the corner units started as speed-pieced HSTs that had corner squares sewn onto them. All the point-matching was courtesy of basting glue-stick, which worked wonderfully.

#103 - Whirlwind

The paper-piecing foundation for this is actually in Anita Solomon Grossman's Make It Simpler Perfect Piecing (under the name "Twin Sisters") so I figured it'd be a piece of cake to whip one up. Xerox, cut, & sew -- what could go wrong? Well, you could cut the pieces backwards, for one thing. It meant I had to skip using the paper foundation, which wasn't so bad, but I felt the finished block didn't have enough contrast between the pinwheel and the background, so I went ahead & made another, this time cutting it correctly & using the foundation.

#19 - Checkerboard

Paper-pieced, no problems. I never used to care much for orange, but since (mostly) making an orange twinkling star, I seem to have grown much fonder of it.

Whew! OK, that's week 8. More to come as I continue to catch up with my blogging!

Colors & Values

Wayne Kollinger has an excellent post today that demonstrates the importance of values in quilt blocks:

You Aren't Just Choosing Colors, You're Choosing Values

Missing Quilts!

Insights From SewCalGal: Missing Quilt Alert: CT Publishing Alert on missing quilts from Spring Quilt Market 2011

So, keep your eyes open, I guess. The more people that know these quilts are missing, the better chance there is of finding them.

I also hope C&T (who was responsible for keeping track of these) has taken a hard look at its theft-prevention and/or organization processes, because 4 quilts going missing from one show really indicates that something isn't working.