Opposites attract



Ginger sez, Life is good

It rained all morning and all evening yesterday - my only (almost) day off. Cold, too. Sounds like it was raining all over Canada. I had plans for outside work yesterday. I don't mind working outside in the rain. I love rain. But the soil in the front yard has finally been raked evenly and I don't want to disturb it when it's wet.

And I can't cut the grass in the backyard either. We're having a backyard party this coming  weekend, so I need to get some work done there. This weekend is a "long weekend" in Canada - May 23 is (Queen) Victoria Day and also traditionally the weekend that gardeners across Canada plant their gardens (there are no other optimists like gardeners). It's also usually a bit on the chilly side. The public swimming pool opens every year on this weekend, and while the outdoor pool is filled with happy, noisy children, the pool staff are usually wearing parkas and shivering on the pool deck.

Next weekend we're planning a cozy fire in our backyard fire pit. So it would be nice to get the grass cut, and the accumulated mess from last Fall cleaned up. It's amazing how fast the weeds grow. The pasture of dandelions in the backyard have already flowered and gone to seed. It's ot fair how they can go through an entire reproduction cycle and it's barely warm enough to be outside.

The May/June issue of McCall's Quilting has a fabulous yin/yang pattern by Toby Lischko that I just have to make. I've never done curved seams before, and I'm going to have to start collecting black and white fabric, but even before I saw this pattern, I was planning a Yin/Yang quilt in my head. I can't make it right away, but it just fast tracked up my priority list.

Just need to finish the current quilt I'm working on - still ripping out stitches - and then hopefully make a skirt for our Christmas tree and maybe even finish off all of those Christmas presents I started a couple of years ago. After that, we'll see.

Until next time,

Out it goes

Ginger still loves to be in physical contact with her brother, Rusty

So much for my free motion quilting. I had my lap quilt over 2/3 done but I just wasn't loving it, and I had the usual tension problems in my stitching whenever I change directions. I always listen to  that little voice in the back of my head, and the voice told me to take it all out. I'll try another design - probably back to my boring old stippling which, at least, I'm usually sort of good at.

The Bartlett Pear in our backyard is in full bloom

On the plus side, I got to experiment with a new pattern. Maybe someday soon I'll try it again.

The weather was nice last week, so I spent most of my free time out in the yard. There's so much to do and so little time to do it, in between work and good weather. I tore up the front lawn in 2008 because I couldn't stand it anymore - it was on a slope so I struggled each week to cut it, and it was full of weeds. The little sidewalk was crooked and twisted and the handmade retaining wall along the driveway was impossible to maintain. Anyway, three years later and I'm still working on it. It's much too long a story to recount here, but I'm getting it done my own way.

There's a Full Moon coming up Tues., May 17 at 26 Scorpio. Joint finances will come to a head so address those issues before Tuesday when they're likely to explode into a huge issue. Mercury, Venus and Mars are in the beginnings of Taurus so watch that spending on pretty pieces of artwork and home decorations. I'm not saying that spending on those things is bad, just stick to your budget.

Until next time,

Learn as you Quilt

Fabricland opened a new store in Kamloops a few weeks ago, and I managed the time off work to get in there over Easter. I bought a few things, including thread.

Fabricland isn't a quilt shop but it carries standard 100 per cent polyester Gutermann thread which I like as an all purpose thread. So I bought a small selection of different thread for my latest project - including a nice purple top stitch to stand out against the black fabric. And some 40 wt. Coats and Clarke caught my eye because it was on sale (buy 1, get 2 free - who can resist?)

OMG! All that cat hair!

I finished my stitch in the ditch earlier in the week so I was ready (or not) for some free motion. I loaded the top stitch Gutermann (looked like a 30 wt.) and put in a new Schmetz top stitch 80/12 needle, although I had a heck of a time threading it - then took a couple of practice runs to get the tension right. But the thread just refused to go through the needle .

Finally I gave up on the Gutermann and put in my new spool of purple Coats and Clarke (100 per cent trilobal polyester) and away we went! Until my (very small) bobbin ran out a while later, and then it was way past my bedtime, anyway.

The backing is actually violet, not the grey it looks like here

I looked up Gutermann "top stitch" on the internet.  Hmmmm. Heavy duty sewing. buttonholes. Hmmm. Maybe not the top stitch I just assumed it was.

I was quite-satisfied with my free motion this week. It's not beautiful or evenly spaced or consistent, but at this stage I'm just going for "stitches stay stitched, even when washed" and I think I've achieved that. Looking at the back of the quilt, I don't see any major problems (yet), and that's call for a celebration. Only washing will tell.

 

 

A Taurean Moon is very fortuitous for quilters, as it speaks to home crafts and getting them done, no matter how long it takes.

Favourite Taurus colours (ruled by Venus): Taurus colors are brown, russet, and turquoise. Vulnerable parts of the body are the neck, throat, shoulders, and upper torso. Stiff necks, sore throats, and earaches are common Taurean complaints. The emerald, a variety of the mineral beryl and as costly as a diamond, is the Taurus birthstone. The emerald's rich green color is suitably Taurean since it is the color of money, green pastures, and serenity. The emerald has a six-sided geometric form. Six is the number assigned to Venus which in turn, is the planetary ruler of Taurus. Flowers for Taurus are the rose (red), daisy, lily, and daffodil.

Until next time,

Patience is a virtue

Yikes! I never intended such a long time between posts. Don't know what happened, except that I had a few unexpected days off work around Easter and I suspect it threw me off my schedule. I can't wait for retirement when I can make up a new schedule - one that includes quilting and blogging whenever I want.

Rusty and Ginger hanging out at the water cooler

Also, I've been taking advantage of the good weather lately to work outside in the yard. Yesterday was glorious and much was accomplished. I planted my strawberries, pulled weeds. I took some of my flowers out of the greenhouse to plant before commen sense overtook me and I remembered it was only the first of May. Still enough cold weather in the next few days to kill tender flowers. Saw my first Calliope hummingbird of the season, as well as a couple of yellow-rumped warblers hopping from tree to tree. The hummingbirds are late, but it's still good to see them.

Snow still on what passes for a mountain in these parts

The Saskatoons are in bloom - also called Serviceberries in some places

I even had a Liberal candidate at my door last night (it's election day in Canada today). She didn't stay long once I told her I'd already voted in the advance poll last week, but at least she made the attempt to visit the constituents. I've only seen two of our five (or six?) candidates here since the election was called. It's a huge riding, and they all live in the larger cities in the southern part of it. The city voters usually determine the election's outcome, so the candidates don't really need to shmooze us folks in the small towns (although you never know), and they usually don't. We do have a local man who is running as a candidate, but he'd doing it in another riding. Go figure. Anyway, the polls are just about to close and the rest of the night will be spent in counting ballots and listening to election coverage.

I haven't done much at my sewing machine lately. The area is still a mess, but guilt finally overcame me today and when the cold, nasty winds picked up outside, I shoved the mess aside and started working on a quilt that has been waiting patiently for me, collecting cat hair as it sits folded over a dining room chair. Unfortunately, I don't have the same patience at the moment and I decided to take a break after a couple of really dumb mistakes. I'll get back to it later tonight.

I always start quilting by outlining certain shapes in the blocks - in this case, friendship stars. Stitch in the ditch is my own way of basting the quilt. Some call it stabilizing. Once that's done, I get out the fancy thread and ruin it all with my freemotion quilting. I need to practice more, but the best way to practice is just to do it. I need more small projects to practice on.

The quilt I'm working on is a lap quilt. Not a full sized quilt, but larger than what I've been working on lately. One of my biggest problems is getting all that material through that little 6-inch throat. If I'm not paying attention and constantly straightening everything out, my stitching gets all crammed in some areas and stretched in others. You need lots of patience.

One of the local ranches invited everyone to come and meet their goats

Ever wonder what a llama's tongue looks like? It seems that all creatures love to be touched

And the star of the day, their newest baby goat

But, New Moon in Taurus today. New Moons are great for starting (or re-starting) projects, and Taurus is a home-loving sign. Very patient, but boy, when they've had enough, Taureans can just blow their stack and it's like an atom bomb went off. But when they're patient, they can move mountains and accomplish great things. Let's use that thought for this month's quilting.

Until next time,

Blocks that celebrate

I don't have much in the way of pictures yet. I always have a bit of a lag after I finish a project, trying to decide what to work on next. Not that I have a long list to choose from - sometimes it just takes a while to choose. That, and my sewing area is usually so messy after a finish that clean up becomes a big job, and a big roadblock to getting started on something else. So, I've been cleaning. And doing a lot of doodling lately, practicing some freemotion designs. Next step is to transfer them to paper and run them through the sewing machine. Normally I just stipple, but I'd like to do something different. I have a laptop sandwich that has been waiting for months for some attention. I think I've found just the freemotion design I want to use to quilt it - just have to practice it a bit more.

Of course, there is always the danger of getting sidetracked on other projects. While cleaning up earlier this week, I decided I needed to practice my embroidery stitches. I used to do this when I was a teenager, but those days have passed out of memory - except that I still have an old cigar box full of cotton and silk skeins. You can guess how long it's been just by the 12 cent sticker on the labels.

So I found a suitable design from Homeberries which has lots of beautiful free patterns, and I added my own little house in the background. I got the idea from "calendar" quilts (one block per month) to make up a single 6x6 block per year to represent something in my life. This is the year we pay off our mortgage, so my house is in it. In 12 years I ought to have enough blocks to make a quilt! It's going to be part applique, part embroidery.

Rusty the quilt assistant, keeping a close eye on those stitches

Double checking every detail

Unlike Ginger, who keeps trying to eat my patterns and steal my pencils

But then, Rusty learned at the feet of Master Miao Yin for the few weeks they were together

Until next time,

Feels good to Finish

Finally! At the end of March I finished a small project that I began in May 2009 not long after I took the plunge and joined my local quilting guild. Felt like I'd been working on it forever! One of my oldest (in the sense of time, not age) and dearest friends is a school teacher back in Ontario - four provinces away. I haven't seen her in years, but we keep in touch through email and the occasional letter.

After discovering a new love for quilting, I wanted to do something super special for Judith, so I designed a simple little wall hanging with a school house, some stars and apples. I threw in some geese just because they looked folksy, and that little harlequin border at the bottom just for some bright colour. Did I say simple? That's me. My brain was the simple factor, not the wallhanging.

I committed every newbie mistake in the book, and I could probably add a chapter or two. The best one was that I made up the label right away attached it - for Christmas 2009. May to December, I figured I was giving myself lots of time to finish. The piecing went together rather quickly as I raced to get it finished for Christmas. It was the quilting that did me in. I sewed it, then ripped it out. Sewed it and ripped it out. I think I've mentioned that part of the project on this blog in the past. Yep, I became ruthless at removing bad stitching.

The good part is, I learned a lot while making it. As I told Judith, it has my worst stitching and my best stitching in it. Some of it I just couldn't remove without taking the entire thing apart. We just have to learn to live with our mistakes, sometimes.

I was so elated in finally finishing it that I made a couple of little mug rugs to go with it. (Maybe to rationalize why it had taken me so long...) A couple of leftover stars that didn't get used (because they were too wonky - but I've since learned that wonky can be fun) and some leftover material. Now those only took me a couple of days to do. Go figure.

So now she has them. And she says she likes them. But Judith has the rare ability to see past the imperfect surface and see the love and the effort that went into a gift, which was my intention when I made it, because she is the sister I never had.

Ginger says, that ear is just too tempting not to bite

Rusty says, $**^#*%!!

Until next time,

Now where was I?

Mercury in Aries slipped unoticed into Retrograde at the end of March and has been doing a tapdance all over my Libra Sun. Librans aren't having a good month of it as many of the planets are passing through Aries, which is in the opposite sign to Libra. The Sun, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Uranus are currently in Aries, most of them in the later degrees where my Sun lives. Saturn is in Libra, but that can be just an added kick in the pants. No wonder I'm having a hard time getting out of bed these mornings.

Last week I finished a project for a friend that I've been working on forever. It left me wondering what I should do next. I have more projects that need finishing and dozens more I'd like to start, but I still couldn't decide. I'll blame it on Mercury Ret. When planets are retrograde, they come to a part of their orbit that makes them look like they're going backwards. Of course, they aren't, but astrologers have observed that during that time, the planet's energies also get backed up. In the case of Mercury, that means decision-making, any sort of communication (especially electronic) and short distance travel. It goes Direct on Apr. 23.

Now, where was I?

Right. I was wondering what to do next, so I found a paper-pieced star I've wanted to try for a long time. One of the things I thought I liked about paper piecing was that you get to use up those mountains of oddly shaped scraps you've accumulated. I gathered my scraps and struggled with the pattern for about a week before I gave up and admitted that I would have to sort and trim all of the pieces I needed because using scraps took a billion years and I often came up short of the seam allowance after sewing it on. So, a few minutes of trimming, a couple of days of sewing and my star was finished.

The star pattern is free, along with dozens of other great blocks, over at www.quilterscache.com

Until next time,