Owls blowing in the wind...

Yeah! Another finished top! I have finished my owl quilt top. **Beaming smile**

 

As you can see, it really needed the wind to blow some leaves and petals around a little since this photo shows how much the trees and owls are leaning. I think some blowing wind in the quilting will help make my leaning tree a little more believable. (If it doesn't, don't tell me!)

 

 

 Mom had the stupendous idea to add a dark border to the quilt. It actually helps to brace up the little feathered leaners and looks absolutely fantastic. I never would have thought of this. Thanks, Mom!

Mom pulled this beautiful, dark batik out of her stash and offered it to me. Very generous, since the fabric is gorgeous! Luckily for her stash, I had actually bought some of that same fabric! The photo above shows the pattern but not the actual colors. The best photo for the color is the top pic.

I decided to blow some petals and leaves off of the edge of the quilt and onto the border. I like it. Now to make a backing and get it quilted! Then on to the quilt show. (Psst...Don't tell the judge my owls are leaning. Maybe she won't notice.)

Believe it or not, I found three more UFOs this weekend. I'll have to add these to my 2013 list of To Dos. Sigh.

This quilt has been living on top of my freezer ever since Sinbad went through his "bad spell." This was a particularly favorite target of his. Now that he no longer feels like he has to constantly mark his territory, I can bring it back down and finish it. All it lacks is some machine quilting - I'm actually machine quilting this one myself! Which is why it's still not done. : / Machine quilting is not one of my favorite pastimes. Then a little binding and a label, and it'll be done.

This next quilt is a peacock quilt that I started several years ago for my aunt and uncle in California. They had just bought property that had some abandoned peafowl on it and were bemoaning the constant screaming. The peacocks' not theirs. : )  After a few months, a rescue group came and collected the homeless fowl and found them a new home. I wanted to make this peacock quilt for my aunt and uncle as a reminder of what they almost had to live with. ; )

The majority of the quilt top is this fun and colorful pattern interspersed with the occasional 14" peacock square.

For some reason, I could not get a good photo of the peacocks. They kept washing out. The color in the top picture is true, but I'm showing you this photo so you can see the design. The top is finished other than the borders. I just need to get it done and send it to be quilted.

And now there's this pile of shiny fabric. It's hard to believe, but this is my very first attempt at quilting. It's a crazy patch quilt that I have sewn together, but that still needs lots of embellishments and seam stitching. It's queen sized (what was I thinking?!?), so I'll still be working on it in the retirement home, I'm afraid.

I'll add it to my To Do list, but I can guarantee that it will not be done this year. Maybe, though, I can get a little more done on the seam stitching side if I don't  get too ambitious.

The good news is that I finished the binding and the label on this scrappy brick road quilt. One to scratch off of my 2013 To Do list. Yeah!

I also got back the quilt for my new great-grandniece who is due next month. I need to sew on the binding and it will be ready to post to the expectant mother. I'll have to take some photos of the quilting though. Mom really outdid herself with butterflies and dragonflies. My favorites!

Let's see, after that I have three more quilts waiting on binding... So many near completions. : )  Maybe I'll have more finishes to post soon. Wish me luck!

Deb

What to do with drunken owls...

 

Wll, I thought I had finished my owl wall hanging, but not so. When I cut it down and stood back to admire my handiwork, I found that the owls had been drinking behind my back. That's the only explanation I can think of for why every one of the owls AND the tree were leaning. Surely I didn't sew them on that way...?



 

 

 

So. What to do with a bunch of drunken owls? Disguise them, of course! I have officially named/renamed this quilt "Blowing in the Wind."

 

 I have begun incorporting blowing leaves and flower petals all over the quilt.

I will probably detach more petals and add a few more blowing petals and leaves, but I don't want to overburden the quilt. I want the owls to be the feature. Mom and I have decided that an all-over windy quilting theme with swirls of "wind" around the leaves would help as well. We'll see. I have until the beginning of March to decide if this quilt is good enough to enter into the quilt show in April.

Wish me windy luck!

Debbi

My final owl is finished!

You may remember yesterday's finished owl (below). I spent most of yesterday finishing the eyes and the beak and beginning the last owl.

 

By mid morning, I had this much finished on my final owl. I must admit that the legs were supposed to be super skinny, but there was no way I felt up to attempting something that challenging. All of my quilting friends told me that they wouldn't try it either. They suggested either machine appliqueing it or simply embroidering it. Neither appealed to me, so I just gave her chunky legs! She looks like me!

By the early evening, I had her completely finished (below). I just noticed in these photos that the lines in her wings are going different directions! He left wing has feathers going down, but her left wing is all ruffled... Hmmmm... Maybe she got caught in that strong wind storm we had last night... Whatever, I'm not changing it now!

I still need to applique a small broken branch beside my falling owl, but then I'll be completely finished with the applique. I have three owl eyes that are supposed to have eyelashes, so I have some embroidery ahead of me. I probably won't even start that process until after Christmas since I have to find my long lost embroidery thread. Now where did I last see that thread container?

On a final note tonight, I have been staying very silent about the heartbreaking event in Newtown, CT, last Friday. But I have cried every day when I've watched the news and seen the photos of the lost children and teachers who are being buried each day. As teachers ourselves, my husband and I share the shock and confusion of school teachers everywhere who ask themselves "What if..." What would I do? How would I feel? We don't have children of our own, and neither of us teaches small children; my husband teaches high schoolers, and I teach adults. But we don't feel protective and responsible for our students. My heart grieves for those beautiful little girls and boys and for the women who died trying to save them. I won't mention them again, but I feel better for having written something anyway.

Tomorrow we will finish our Christmas shopping, and I'll finish the wrapping. I got almost everything that I had already bought wrapped today.

Until later,
Debbi

Healthy me and healthy computer!

After three months, I can finally breathe, think, and move freely again. Hurray! Just in time for the holidays. Who could ask for better timing? And now that school is out and I have a working computer again, I can resume posting. Hello again!

As you know, while I was ill, I focused my limited attention on lots of Christmas quilts. I'll show you pictures of two of those today. I am still working on the borders for one of them. Since I'm finally feeling better, I decided to concentrate on finishing the last two owls on my owl wallhanging so that I can enter it in the quilt show in April. I'm only one-half of an owl and some embroidery away from having the top finished. Another hurray!

On to the photos now.

Here are the borders of the second Christmas quilt. As you can see, I used the same three border design on each of the quilts. I wanted a continuous theme tying them all together.

Unlike the first Christmas quilt, I abandoned the alternating 36-patch and 12" block design. I kept the 12" blocks and sashed them with the 2" blocks. This allowed me to feature 20 blocks of different Christmas prints I had. I blush to admit that I hit the Hancock's 50% off Christmas prints sale and now have dozens more prints. I'll be making Christmas quilts for months to come!

The same quilt with a view of the corner borders.

This is definitely the busiest looking of the four quilts that I've made so far. But everyone who knows me says that it most matches my personal style. I guess I must be loud and colorful!

I dont' have pictures yet of the third quilt I made, but I'll get some for the next posting.

In the meantime, here is are some in-progress photos of the fourth quilt. I returned to the 36-patch and 12" block design again, but this time I decided against a random, scrappy look and went for a pattern. I had these blocks laid out while I decided on layout. I didn't have enough snowman fabric to alternate blocks, so I decided on a repeat pattern instead.

I laid out about half of the quilt so that I could sew it together the next evening after school.

 

When I returned home the next evening, This is what I found. At least my kitties left some of the pieces in tact.

Here were the rest of the blocks. It's a good thing I love my kitties too much to get upset with them over their creative spurts. Again, later I'll show you photos of the finished quilt. This is the one that is awaiting the last two borders. Hopefully, after Christmas...

In the meantime, I've returned to work on my owl quilt. As you can see, I needed to finish the owl on the lower right-hand branch.

Here he is all finished! My last owl is actually supposed to be standing on top of this owl's head. I have its feet, body, and wings sewn on. I'm working on its head today. I hope to have it all sewn down by tonight. I'll still need to embroider some eyes on a couple of owls and add a broken branch beside my falling owl, then I'll be all finished.

 

Thanks to Sager Creek Quilt Shop in Siloam Springs, our Stashbusters meeting last Thursday went very well indeed. We had our annual Christmas cookie exchange. As you can see, we had a great turnout with many delicious cookies to share. Thank you Cliff and Pam Goggins for hosting our meetings at the shop! 

And my usual gratuitous kitty photo. Sinbad has rediscovered winter bliss in front of the space heater in my sewing room. I only leave the space heater on when I'm at home. I don't take chances with fire hazards. It's enough for Sinnie. He will reluctantly share his warm blanket with one or more of his sisters, but I usually find him basking alone. Happy kitty!

I'll post more photos of the other two quilts after I get some packages wrapped. And hopefully, some photos of a completed owl quilt top!

Until then, enjoy the holiday season.

Debbi

Happy Thanksgiving! On to Christmast!

I missed posting on Thanksgiving Day. I hope all of you were too busy enjoying family time to have time to look at blogs anyway. I certainly was. And no, I did not try to get in on the special holiday sales. I'll wait until the prices are higher but the crowds are thinner. : ) I'm not fond of getting trampled!

I have been busy, though! I've been Christmas quilting almost every day. I'm still working (slowly, it's true) on binding my first Christmas quilt. Yesterday I finished my second Christmas quilt top and today I'm one sleeping Sinbad away from finishing the third Christmas top. I lack only the last border, but Sinnie has my sewing chair, and of course, I never interrupt a kitty when he/she's sleeping. ; )

In the meantime, here are some photos of my progress in the last couple of weeks. Below is my latest owl. Again with the light eyes, I know. I only have two more owls to go - now if I'll just sit down and get them done! I guess I just don't want to actually be finished with this project. It has been such fun!

Below is the border fabric I chose for my second Christmas quilt. Isn't it nice and rich looking? I love large, bold patterns.

Just like my first Christmas quilt, I included a small strip of the chosen border, then insert a smaller strip of a contrasting color and finish with my wider outer border. I think it's a fun look.

This quilt was supposed to be a lap quilt. I think I missed. : / This is the quilt laid out on a full-sized bed. It hangs off the edges. I think I overshot my mark. *Wry smile*  Again, I used 12" finished blocks, but this time I used my 2" finished blocks as sashing. Each large block is a different Christmas fabric. Can you tell I love Christmas fabrics?

Yep, a trifle larger for a lap quilt!

Below, the other side, including my How the Grinch Stole Christmas fabric. In the photo above, you will see my Land of Unwanted Toys fabric. Those were two of my favorite children's Christmas shows when I was a child. Oh, who am I kidding? They're still my favorites! Along with It's a Wonderful Life. Ah, Jimmy Stewart. *Sigh.*

Now that I'm in the mood for cinema, I think I'm going to go watch a movie with my husband. I doubt that it will include Jimmy Stewart (I suppose that would be too much to hope for), but it should be good. I rented an award winning foreign film. It's recorded in German with English subtitles. That should drive my husband crazy!

Enjoy your Thanksgiving leftovers! I'll post again when Sinbad stirs, and I can get some more done on my latest Christmas quilt top!

Until then,
Debbi

Back to sewing...

Aren't antibiotics wonderful? My husband and I are both finally feeling semi-well again. That means that I can get back to some serious sewing!

Mom quilted my Old-fashioned Christmas quilt for me last week, and I got the binding sewn on this weekend. Now I just need to to hand-sew it down. I took pictures of the process and would like, later this week, to post it as a tutorial. I know that most of you already know how to bind a quilt, but I also know that some of you are newer at quilting and might like to see a method that may be different from yours. If you're already familiar with my method, I'll be writing other posts later. I don't have time to post the tutorial today, but I hope to tomorrow!

Anyway, since my cats took over my sewing room again while I was working on my bindings this weekend, I took the opportunity to work a little on my owl wallhanging again.

I had reached this point on my little girl owl before I got sick.

I was able to finish off her eyes and beak last night. Okay, so her beak looks a little like she flew into a window and bent it, but oh well. The eyes may be a little light again, but I'm not changing them this time! She'll just have to have light blue eyes. : )

I picked out some fabrics last night for my next owl. I have two left to applique on. Hopefully, I'll have some more progress to report tomorrow. Until then, happy sewing, and I'll work on that tutorial tomorrow (cross my fingers that I'll have time!).

Deb

Laryngitis

Who knew that losing one's voice could be accompanied by a loss of interest in talking with one's fingers as well? I was in the middle of a class lecture last Monday when my voice suddenly started to fail. I think it was caused by allergies, but I've heard that there's something going around that seems to be causing this in a lot of people. Anyway, I've been fairly silent until the last couple of days. I missed Tuesday through Friday of last week. I've rasped my way through this week so far. I'm hoping to get back to normal by next week. I think I will have to stay quiet this weekend, though, if I want that to happen.

The good news is that I managed to get a lot of sewing done while I was out. I couldn't move a lot without coughing, so I restricted myself to working on my owl quilt.

As you can see, poor Swirly Belly's left eye went on crooked, so I actually removed it and resewed it straighter. This is a photo before the repair. I haven't taken a "fixed" photo yet.

I also had to tear out the eggs from little Mama Owl's nest and redo them. They were very lumpy looking in my first attempt. This is a photo of the repaired owl. A little better anyway.

 

And following are the reasons for my allergy attack. We have been enjoying some much needed rain after this summer's drought. Unfortunately, blooming flowers bring pollen, even in the fall. Aren't they lovely, though?

We're expecting a major winter storm to hit this evening, and the temperature is supposed to drop from 81 to 49. Ugh! There go all of my lovely flowers! Our lows are supposed to hit the lower 30's, so my flowers are going to be frosted. I'll have to take in all of my indoor flowers that I still have outside.

And finally, my gratuitous kitty photo of Sinbad praying for a warm bed to sleep in when this cold weather hits. Isn't he a sweetheart? Don't worry, Sinbad. You can come cuddle with me.

Until later,

Debbi

When will I learn? Sigh...

Last Thursday, my wonderful Busy Bees friends helped me chose the right colors for this next owl. I love the belly swirls! The pink base went down well. I was pleased with it. The belly also went on beautifully.

The eyes went on wonderfully. Again, I was pleased. Until... I got my little owl completely finished and realized that, once again, I had forgotten its beak! No problem. One beak to add.

Shoot. This beak was supposed to have gone on before the blue part of the eyes. I keep forgetting to check my piece numbers and sew them on IN ORDER!

The blue, the green inner eye (not shown), and the pupil (also not shown) were now all in the way. I had to remove the right eye entirely (I got the beak on slightly crookedly and had to make adjustments). Now I have the blue part resewn, and tonight I have to resew the lovely green. When I'm done, - again - I'll take a photo of the finished owl. It's really cute.

Next comes a rather complicated owl, and I'm still picking out colors. It may be a while before you see any progress on it.

In the meantime, I also spent quite a lot of time this weekend sewing on my Day and Night quilt. I have 24 blocks sewn together. I haven't decided yet whether I'm going to shoot for the entire 42 (6 x 7) or stop at 30 (5 x 6). It depends on how well my green fabric holds out. I'm already trying to come up with original ideas for the borders. Let's see, what do I want...?

For my kitty loving friends, Sinbad is now on an allergy testing diet. This means that he has to eat synthetic food for at least two months and see if he stops scratching and overgrooming. Fortunately, he LOVES the duck and green pea fake dry food. He has needed some persuading over the venison and green pea canned food, though. He finally ate a good portion of it this morning.

The other cats are still on their regular food (except for the yummy canned food - if Sinnie can't have any, neither can they . He would know!). I feed Sinnie in the sunroom and close the door until the others have finished their food and I can let him out without fear of his stealing their food. It's actually working remarkably well so far. I have my fingers crossed that he'll start showing some improvement soon. I'll take belly shots if he ever grows some hair back!

Until then,
Debbi