Merry belated Christmas, Al!

Mom has just a little more to do:  hand-stitching the brown border down. And then clipping lots of extra thread. And then finding a washer big enough so it can gets its first washing. And then she’ll be bringing it along when she goes to visit you next week!

Every quilt needs a name. This one’s is Double Love. Borrowing from the tradition of using red squares at the center of “log cabin” quilts, symbolic of the “heart” of the cabin, we used red squares for all the centers on the ragged squares side. Al, we hope that Love is always at the center of your home! Then Double because it was made by two of us, therefore holds double the love. Plus, it’s a double-sided quilt.

Since putting a label on the “back” side of the quilt wasn’t possible, we decided to embroider the info on one of the tan border pieces on the structured/diamonds side. Fittingly for a Christmas gift, the piece had some holly leaves on it. Plus a guy with a dog. Except you’re so much manlier than that guy with the tree, Al.

And there would need to be two dogs of course. Both MUCH LARGER than the one pictured. (Ken shown below with Tucker and Sierra, missing being a dog owner!)

And see? You will get it before your birthday after all!

I love you, Little Brother!

(P.S. Above photo taken by my totally talented sis-in-law, Jen.)

Thanks for voting!

It was interesting to see the results of the poll. The clear winner, with 50% of the votes, was the three squares design, the one we were originally going to go with until we realized we didn’t have enough orange left. (I was glad to see the other three got some votes too though – I really liked them too!)

But since it was our original idea and you guys picked it as the winner too, we got creative and made it work without having to go buy more orange. Here’s my momma ironing a border strip after sewing on the two corner pieces – you can see one of the the orange squares corners hanging off the end of the ironing board…

You can also see, in the background, my craft desk that doesn’t quite look it’s supposed to, but I’ll get it whipped back into shape once the quilt is done. Which I’d hoped was going to be this weekend. But that didn’t happen. Although, not for lack of trying… Here I am trying to look awake and enthusiastic while quilting Square # 68 (out of 100).

Just 32 more sets of squares to quilt into place, then border to be attached (and quilted a little too), and Al’s quilt will be done!!!

“What do I do…?” Wednesday: Al’s Quilt Corners

I mentioned in my project list post that I’m a little unsure what to do in the corners of Al’s Quilt (due to level of complexity and available fabrics). So I did some more virtual designing in my PowerPoint quilt file and have a few ideas...

Would you like to tell me which one is your favorite corner?

Note: you do not need to be a “quilter” to have an opinion. You just need to have eyes and a brain. And a finger to click the vote button.

Oh, and after the poll I'll talk a bit about the title of this post…

(Click each tile to open a picture of the full quilt.)

(By the way, the poll here and in the sidebar are the same; doesn’t matter which one you use.)

And I’d love to read a comment about what makes it (them) your favorite(s).

As for today’s post title, “What do I do…?” Wednesday gives the impression that this is a weekly thing, like “Menu-Plan Monday” at orgjunkie or “Wordless Wednesdays” (like MaryAnne often does). Well, maybe it will be.

LiEr had a great idea in the comments the other day: to have a regular segment where readers could submit pictures of fabrics they need help with, like I did with the hula girls. I think that would be so fun and inspirational and community-building.

I’m still thinking through some questions I have about it, including:

• how broad would it be (this post is asking for design opinions, not fabric use ideas)
• how often would it go (this post’s title seems to suggest every Wednesday, but with me as the facilitator, that’d be a quite a feat!),
• how would it allow others to share their question (do I feature one person here, or use Mr. Linky to let as many as want to point back to their blog—if they have one)
• would it really gain a “critical mass” or would my handful of wonderful readers eventually get sick of it
• what would it be called (not sure yet if I like “What do I do…?” but haven’t thought of anything better yet)

and on and on. I’ll have to think on it some more. Feel free to comment about this too, if you want.

And lastly:

Guess who’s home, safe and sound, albeit missing another tooth?

My Heidi-lein!

Al’s Quilt Update, Part Deux

Hey, thanks for humoring me in the comments yesterday/today that you were at the edge of your seats. But now the “solution” will be pretty anti-climactic.

I just spread the quilt out on the floor, laid out the medium and small squares in their Lucy-designated order on top of the large squares, then started shuffling them around into a more pleasing-to-Karin pattern.

Tried to think less “Aargh, I already did this once before” and more “Ooh, I love puzzles, and now I get to do one again.” (There’s that “attitude” thing again.)

So here are the squares left to sew on. 60 pairs of them. Now safely out of reach of almost-2-year-olds. AND firmly fastened together with large safety pins. Just in case.

Actually, the hardest part was finding a spot large enough to spread the quilt. See those brown strips? Those are the border strips!!! That’s going to be one big quilt.

Oh, was I supposed to show a picture of the quilt itself? Of it laying spread out with all the colorful squares? Or of the other side, in all it’s wrinkly-puffy-glory where I’ve already added the quilting lines?

Well, I could, but then what would I have to show when’s it actually done? (Deadline: early June when my mom flies out to visit Al, tho’ I hope we have it done long before then.)

P.S. Was going to say something about my “merry little adventure” from yesterday, but she did it much better.  And check out the cuties she made for me: Cottontail the Bunny, Flypaper the Frog (with an adorable little fly at the end of his extendable tongue!!!), Sting the Little Bee and Bandit the Raccoon! LiEr/Lorraine/Friend Extraordinaire, you rock!

Al’s Quilt Update

Been working on the quilt in bits and pieces, but hit a snag.

Remember this photo from the end of this post?

While I had use of the open expanse in the basement of my parents’ place in December, I laid out all the squares in a pleasingly “random” fashion. Not too many oranges in one spot, or too many browns. Made sure same fabrics weren’t too close to each other. So, appearing random, but not really random. Then carefully put them in labeled, pinned-together stacks in the order they needed to be sewn on.

A while ago, little Lu got found my stacks. And started pulling out the pins keeping these stacks labeled and in order. I thought I’d caught her early enough to minimize the damage. I thought I’d figured out which stack was which. And which lonely squares went in which stack.

And the next two rows I sewed on worked out just fine.

But when getting ready to quilt the latest row this week, I found this:

A medium square of monkeys right next to a large square of the same? How did that happen? And farther down the row, the same thing, except with one of the tan fabrics. And a dark green medium squares right on top of another dark green large square – no contrast at all.

Little Lu, what did you do?!?

And now I’m out of time. (Heidi has no school today, so we’re heading on a merry little adventure very soon.) So will have to continue this tomorrow.

[Insert melodramatic announcer man’s voice here].
What happened next? 
What did Karin do?
And where did the monkeys go?
Tune in next time…

Maybe there will be a real “update” then…   : )

Ironing Board Cover... and update on Al's Quilt

I took the opportunity, while my parents were in town, to finally finish my mom's Christmas present. I could easily go on and on about the whys, hows and wherefores (and the why-it-wasn't-dones) but instead I'll just show the before and after...



























Her board is shorter than my board, which is why the "after" looks too short. My board is modeling. I really should give it a new cover too -- it's so stained and starch-filled. Yech. But guess it's like the cobbler's kids who are always barefoot...

Speaking of belated Christmas gifts, I know I said I wouldn't post about Al's quilt again til it's done, but Mom and I got so much more done while she was here, I can't help myself.

The squares side (after I ripped out the stitches where I inadvertently caught up part of the edge while I was quilting the middle. aargh!):

And the triangles side (before I ripped out the extra stitches that made it "feel like a potholder" according to my mom; if you look at the orange diamond, you can see them: the top left part has three squares quilted into it, the bottom left has six in the picture, but has only three now in real life):

And we got a good start on the border too, for the triangles side...

I'm thinking it will be done well before his summer birthday! : )

Quilt-y, WILTI, Naming Fun

OK, I think this is going to be the last post about Al's Quilt til it's done. I started some of the quilting on it and, oh, it's amazing what that step does. But before we go to pictures of that -- or find out what WILTI is -- first wanted to also show what Al got for me:

So cute! Have to show some pictures from inside...

Here's the author/designer, clearly enjoying his little critters...

It tickles me, the way he posed them all and made up little stories...

Am going to love digging into this book...

But will try to wait til The Quilt is done...

Speaking of which, here it is with one almost-completely-quilted row, done in concentric squares. Finally settled on using red thread on this side -- to emphasize the red centers of each block...

...and orange thread on the other side, for some fun pep. And 'cause Al likes orange. And 'cause it's close enough to red that if (er, when) my tension is a little off (meaning thread from one side peeks through to the other) it won't be as noticeable. I'm SOOOO glad I was able to borrow my friend's machine for this part. Came with a walking foot (no ugly puckers yet -- joy!!!) plus there's a setting so when I stop sewing, the machine automatically stops with the needle in the down position. Which helps out a lot when pivoting at a corner. And considering I have ... 10 x 10 blocks x 6 squares per block x 4 corners per square... 100... carry the 2... TWO THOUSAND FOUR HUNDRED CORNERS at which I must pivot, I'm happy for any help I can get.

So then, what's WILTI? Stands for Why I Love The Internet. I probably should call it HWOTTISPAAAC (Huge Waste Of Time That I Should Probably Avoid At All Costs) but WILTI is shorter and easier to type. See, I loved your name suggestions (great list, Jenny) and was all set to use "Mary Bobbins" (of course I get it, J! That's my kind o' humor! And it didn't help that I'd been singing "Supercalifragilistic" all day long -- thanks a lot, Delilah!).

But Al's girlfriend's name is Mary so don't think I want to do that after all. Had also thrown out Bob because it was a boys name, but I've always loved the name Bob, sounds so friendly to me. And who's to say a sewing machine has to be a girl anyway?!?

But then saw Dee's note. Bertha was more in line with Edna (the first name that I thought of but don't quite like). Almost perfect, except its "bigness" seems too big for my little friend.

Sooooo off to the Internet, to a site that almost convinces me to have more babies, just so I can browse all the possible names. There are a ton of "baby name" websites out there, but this one, this one is one-of-a-kind. You can type in some names you like,

e.g. Mary, Bob, Bertha & Edna,

and it'll give you similar ones, based on style, popularity, and a host of other characteristics. Try it yourself at nymbler.com; see what "matches" your family members (or be a responsible time manager and just email the link to a pregnant friend...).

Really, I didn't spend too long there before finding my winner:

Beatrice Bobbins.
Or Aunt Bea, to me.

And since my friend's machine is a "Brother" brand, I figure this one can be

Bea's "brother," Bob.

(I wonder how my friend will like her machine's new name. Ha ha.)

Chugging along on Al's Quilt

Been sewing. And making progress. Thought I wouldn't be at the point I'm at right now til at least May or so. But here it is, still the beginning of January and I've actually gotten a lot accomplished. So I'm pretty excited. And hoping this momentum will keep me going strong these next few days? weeks?

Wanna see? It's a bit of a mess. And the lighting down in my basement family room at 10pm (when I should be in bed) is atrocious. But here goes...

Here are 8 rows of 10 blocks each, waiting to have their seams ironed flat. Just gotta figure out which direction to iron them...

Here are the "triangle squares" waiting to be sewed into rows, then seams ironed flat. Five "sets" in this stack (which will become 5 rows)...

...and another set started, see? Four pairs --- which will become two quartets --- which will become one row of eight. So far, I haven't screwed up the order of any of the pieces. I think. I hope... Anyway, two more sets are already sewed into rows and ironed and then the two rows also sewed together into a wider row. You'll see that in a minute...
Here's a bunch of orange fabric that still needs to be cut into squares and strips for the border, but I'm not sure on the sizes, so I'm just ignoring this pile for a while. But hey, where are the rest of the border pieces?!? The 36 green rectangles that I sewed onto 36 beige rectangles to make 36 squares?!? (If I know my middle kid, they're probably in the playroom now, covering 36 little stuffed animals in 36 miniature "beds." Aaargh. Cute, but still, aaargh!)
And here's the thing that's giving me hope... Doesn't look like much but it's one-fifth of the quilt, already stuffed with batting and pinned together, just waiting to be quilted!!!!! ("Quilting" is when you sandwich the batting between the front and back layers and then sew lines to keep it all together. Before that happens, when you sew all the pieces into blocks, rows, etc, that's called "piecing." I didn't know that for a long time. Perhaps you didn't either? Now you do.)
Just a minute, let me spread it out for you. First, the "triangles" side. The pairs of squares on either end will be covered by those elusive green-beige border squares ... which I still can't find, grrr... so I'll approximate the border with some scraps I can find. See bottom right corner of photo...
And then here's the "squares" side... Wow, this is going to be BIG quilt. I did the math. I checked the internet. King quilts should be around 110"x110". But dude, that looks really big. And this doesn't even include the 5" brown border around the whole thing!

So let's see it with a small section of border. This is NOT a cotton "quilter's" fabric. It's more like a thick upholstery brocade. But I think it'll make a nice border. By the way, this is NOT the way quilts are usually put together. Not any of it -- the "wrong fabric" border, the double-sidedness, the quilt as you go approach. But I'm just following where desire and necessity take me, trying something different, and so far so good. (Or is it "sew far, sew good"? Late-night puns -- folks, I'm really sorry!)
Ooh ooh! Found the green-beige squares! So let's flip it over again and get a better approximation of what the finished border on the "triangles" side will look like. And you may think I'm taking all these pictures/doing all this layout for you, dear readers, but really it's for me. To give me a vision of where I'm going, a vision to cling to when I'm sewing ("piecing" and "quilting") with no end in sight and all hope seems lost. Because, as my dad is always quoting, from Prov. 29:18, "Without vision, quilters perish," er, I mean "people"...

And this, this is my trusty little machine, originally my grandma Marmee's, faithfully chugging along, especially ever since this past August when the sewing bug bit me again in earnest and sunk its teeth in deep this time. I heard some squeaking coming from her innards somewhere today, so figured I better give her a little TLC 'cause she's still has a lot of work ahead of her. "TLC" means randomly oiling stuff in the hopes of fixing the squeak. I think I managed to do that. Now, after all we've already been through, I think the poor girl needs a name...

Happy New Year!

Last post of 2008. Here are some random photos and thoughts from the past 10 days...

We had a wonderful time with my family at my parents' place over Christmas; my older two loved decorating the tree with their Uncle Al.

Played outside in the snow a lot! In addition to the large snowman, there was also a snowbunny. (Heidi loves bunnies!!!)
And using the mound created by the snowplow along with the slight slope of the front yard, some of our crew built a fun little sled run right in front of the house.

Even Lucy enjoyed it! And I loved having huge amounts of floorspace on which to lay out the quilt designs. Here's the "structured" side, missing its border still.
We ended up going with Diamonds2; Al was fine with any of the designs but did mention the zigzags were maybe a little too "Charlie Brown-ish." The light is a little off in this picture -- in reality, the light greens and beiges are not that similar.

And here's the "eclectic" side. Got the idea to just sew squares on top of squares from this lovely "ragged squares" quilt.

I was amazed at just how hard it was to get a pleasing "random" layout. One of my brothers quipped that it's kind of like when we set up our Settlers board "randomly": "no, there's already a mineral there," "we need a better number on brick here," etc.

And I've heard of panting yourself into a corner, but quilting yourself into a corner?... : ) (Thanks to sis-in-law Jen -- and her gorgeous DSLR -- I'm actually in some photos for a change.)

Of course, sewing the pieces together would have worked a lot better if I had brought not only my sewing machine but also the power cord for it!!! Argh. Oh well, will start sewing it in 2009.

Our week at the "cabin" was fantastic... and then I came home to an over-the-top gift from a wonderful friend who made me give her a house key before we left town. What can be better than walking into your house after a vacation and seeing this:
Or this:
Especially considering the state it was in after the craziness of our departure day. She tidied up, she vacuumed, she dusted, she organized, she even cleaned the bathrooms! Aaaaah - deep contented sigh!

Before I even came hom, I knew I'd be in for a treat: my brother had driven to our town to pick up his girlfriend at the airport there and stopped at my house to hang out before her arrival. On the phone with me, he was asking how to turn on the TV. (It's complicated. Truly.) I told him first he needed to find the right remotes.

Al: "You mean the ones in the remote basket?"

Me: "Oh, I didn't know I had a remote basket."

Meet my new remote basket. Suzanne, you are an amazing genius angel.

So, resolutions for 2009:

1) Build on the beautiful gift Suz gave me by maintaining some order in my home.
2) Finish Al's quilt. Preferably well before his July birthday.

P.S. When the previous owner of the hibiscus told me that tree would probably have blooms this winter even, I didn't believe her. Clearly, she knows her stuff. Two blooms are almost done, this one just opened up today, and loads more coming soon. Sweet!



Happy New Year!