Gaining Momentum

I am glad to report that since I last posted, some stitching has been done.  Another baby quilt has been finished, and delivered, to wit:

Wow!  The baby makes the quilt look big!  Most of the baby quilts that I make are 40" x 48", which seems to serve them well.  There are quite a number of babies on the horizon, so I need to kick the baby quilt making up a notch.

I also made another fishie postcard, this one for my daughter's birthday, which is today.  It was accompanied by the most chocolate of chocolate cakes (chocolate cake mix, chocolate pudding mix, mini chocolate chips, sour cream) all delivered to her doorstep yesterday.

 A friend's birthday was also this past week, so I kicked out a card for her as well.  Notice the fabric choices, as compared to those in the baby quilt pictured above.  I didn't have to think too much when making this one.

I don't know if you know anyone caught up in the Pokemon Go game, but I've been hearing all about it.  When we arrived in San Carlos, we parked immediately in front of an image.  I saw my first players, and had to take a picture.  If you see people standing around staring intently at their phones, and stopping every couple of feet, they are probably playing the game.

 The next morning, I discovered that my SIL has the game, and my granddaughter is an avid fan.  When she showed me the creature jumping up and down on the table between her parents at Peet's Coffee - can you see the little blue thing on her screen? - I suddenly understood the attraction of the game.  It's quite clever, really.

 Unfortunately for me, the out of town trip means that I've done nothing about finishing my assignment for my online quilt class.  It is due tomorrow.  I've got fabric chosen, but I seriously doubt that I can cut AND sew it all before tomorrow.  oh well.  I'd best stop talking about it, and see if I can actually DO something about it.

I'll leave you with this "selfie" from most of the Itty Bitties...Happy Quilting!

What Happened To July?!

When last I posted, I thought I would be quilting some time soon.  But I didn't.  Instead, I moped around wallowing in the heat, half-heartedly trying to find my quilt mojo.  I couldn't find it anywhere!

Then, last week, we went to Cayucos and Morro Bay, just for the day.  Oh my!  I found inspiration everywhere.  Along with the inspiration was frustration: I forgot my camera at home!  Despite being the new owner of my first iPhone, I found it to be a poor substitute for my beloved Canon.

 When my husband gave me the iPhone, he said that I could use it to send selfies to him every day.  I think I've only missed one day so far.  This was Wednesday's.  ;)

 There were rafts/romps of otters in Morro Bay, and I couldn't stop complaining about forgetting my camera.  This is about the best picture I could get, even with the "zoom" on the iPhone.  I doubt I will forget my REAL camera again any time in the near future.  This was my first time EVER to see otters in the wild, so I don't expect to repeat the experience any time soon.

There were also some seals right up near shore, so I took advantage of them to practice with the iPhone.  I may have a "smart" phone now, but I basically use it to make phone calls and text.  I realize I am in the minority, but I'm still skeptical of the big whoop-de-do.  So far?  I'm not a fan.

As I said, I thought I would do some quilting this month, but it's been a long time coming.  Finally, finally, I quilted one of those baby quilts that I basted back in November.  It didn't take me long to remember why it's important to clear off your quilting surface when machine quilting.  You might end up with something like this.

 But I did get it finished last night.  Hubby asked who it's for.  hmmm, well, it's for a baby.  The list of babies that I owe quilts to is long, so I'll have to choose wisely for its assignment.  The primary goal was just to get it finished.  I'm so glad I can call it Done!

 Next up?  I signed up for a 16 week online course with Katie Pasquini Masopust.  The first assignment is due early next week.  This is about as far as I've gotten.  oh dear.  I'm still not as motivated as I hoped I would be.  I specifically signed up for this to get my motivation back.

Stay tuned.  Fingers crossed that I will have something to show to the teacher by Monday.  Goals are good!

so hot

It. Is. So. Hot.
Okay, so it's really not THAT hot today, expecting a high of a mere 100 degrees.  But it's been hot for days, and my energy has been sucked right out of me.  Yes, folks, surprise, surprise.  Triple digits makes me whine and complain and brings out the worst in me.  Then again, I barely have the will to do anything, so it's probably not really my worst, because that would take some effort.

You get the picture.  It's hot, and I am not a fan.

Last week I delivered Miss Penny back to her parents, and returned to a good 20 degrees more than where I left her.  It was disheartening, to say the least.  But, despite my grumbling and muttering, I'm actually getting a thing or two done.  They are little things, which probably don't add up to much, but baby steps are better than no steps, especially when I feel like I've been idle for an entire month!

I made a postcard, and put it in today's mail.  Oh, look.  Blogger and its tricks.  lovely.

 I found an estate sale listed, so I stopped by.  There was a rack of scarves for 50 cents each, so I chose this one,

 and this one.

 It's a running joke in my family, that Mother taught us to have expensive taste.  I looked for content tags (they'd been removed), but didn't see the signature lines until I'd washed them and hung them on the line.

 Not bad for a buck, eh?

Now I have a question.  They smell a bit fusty.  Does anyone have a sure-fire method of removing odor from delicate fabrics?  They're washed and airing on the line, but they might need something else.  And no, Febreze will not work.  I have chemical/odor sensitivity that induces asthma attacks, so I need something as odorless and odor-neutralizing as possible.

Thank you so much!!

Thwarted By A Cat

Way back when, a long time ago, like back in November, my daughter requested monogrammed towels for Christmas.  She didn't want just any towels, she wanted the top of the line plush bath sheets...and matching hand towels and washcloths.  I bought two sets, one for her, one for her husband, and set them aside to embroider in December.

Well, December came, and unbeknownst to me, the cat found the bag of towels.  This is what he did to them:

I broke my ankle before I was able to get to the store to replace them.  I guess that was Providential, since at Christmastime, my daughter added that she wanted a set for Penny, too.

I think it was March, before I made it back to Bed Bath & Beyond.  By then, the towels had been clearanced out, and replaced with a different brand.  A very helpful manager was able to track down two replacement towels for me, but washcloths and handtowels?  No longer available.

The next step was to try to figure out how to do angled monogramming.  I studied the manual and studied it some more.  It took me two hours this morning, but I finally got it right.  woohoo!  Then I picked up a washcloth, and found this:

 One of the remaining handtowels had this.  Doggone it, Watson!  I am SO glad we had you declawed!  This was actually not what pushed me over the edge.  It was the gouges in the new leather chairs that were the clincher.

 Anyway, back to today.  I have one complete undamaged set of towels purchased in November and March.  And I have figured out the program.

 Here is the towel...

Here is the washcloth and handtowel...

 And that's as far as I can go, until I go back to the store and invest in two more sets of towels, etc.  The goal is to have them finished and ready to deliver this Friday.

 Penny is here until then.  She has been keeping Gramma VERY busy.  Yesterday we had a welcome play date with another Grandma and her granddaughter.

 She has frequent feathered visitors, and I got this pretty cool shot as we sat watching the girls.

The only quilt-related exercise I've done has been to learn how to print a tiled photo on the printer.  My 4x6" photo translated quite easily to a 25 sheet printout.

Oh, and I also signed up for an online workshop with Katie Pasquini-Masopust, that begins in early July.  I am ready and willing to quilt, all I need is some time!  :)

oops

Four of thirty seven.  Note to self:  Do not leave iPad unattended.

Busy Summer Days

Here is the promised picture of the finished quilt.  I realized I was never going to get it set up properly for a photo shoot, so this is what I've got.  Sorry!  It's awfully pretty, and most of the migrated dye came out. yay!

 Before I went to Laguna Beach, I put this postcard in the mail. 

It was finally delivered to the addressee.  Note the ink at the bottom, and the tire tracks on the pink in the upper corner and across the middle.

 How about this, where apparently it was delivered to Bakersfield !!!  The unintended recipient did NOT like that, and took his/her ink pen to it in earnest.  Apparently it was deemed junk mail, not art?

 Yesterday, this field mouse was discovered cowering in the skimmer.  I was dipping in for leaves, and YIKES!  I may have screamed.

 For the next two weeks, these are the girls who are supposed to be swimming in the pool.  Penny is here for a while, as well as a friend's daughter, Natalie.  Natalie is considering vet school, so she's riding along with hubby for much of June.

Other than that, I don't have much.  Hubby was digging through old photos, and found this one from UCDavis, 1980.  wow.  I was young!  That's my dad on the left, and my mother's father on the right.  I'm guessing Mother took the photo?  I don't remember seeing this one before.

And I guess that's about it.  There won't be much quilting going on in the next couple of weeks, as I'm chasing after Penny, trying to keep us both out of trouble.  Goals are good!

That Longtime UFO

Last week, I told you that I finished a longtime UFO.  I started it in, when?  1999?  I think that's when we had that Valley Oak Quilt Guild challenge, involving several fabrics.  I believe we were to use 3 and could add three.  I believe I added the muslin in the blocks, then set them aside.  I missed the finish deadline by a mile.  I don't think I have any pictures of the blocks before they were set into the top.

Fast forward to 2004, when I finished my sister's "30th Birthday Quilt."  (I promised each sibling a quilt when they either got married or turned 30.  All of the quilts were late, which probably goes without saying.)  Anyway, this was the quilt I made for sister #2.  She's a knitter and had a cat, which is why they are included.

Other than the Rose of Sharon blocks, the entire quilt was "original."  When I laid it on the floor, and looked at it from an angle, I LOVED the inner setting.  It was perfect for those leftover blocks from that challenge.
Here was the quilt, back in 2009.

I put shadow trapunto in some of the setting triangles, and quilted feathers in the gold.  The green triangles eventually ended up with feather quilting as well.  Then I decided to trapunto the gold feathers.  oh my.  As you can note by this year's year, it took SEVEN years for me to complete the trapunto.  I did it the old-fashioned way, with acrylic yarn and a 6" needle.  Look at the ripples around the finished edge.  Oh no!!

The last thing to do to finish this beauty was to wash it and see if I could get the ripples to reduce or disappear completely.  What I wasn't expecting was for the red to run.  groan.

oh. my. goodness.  What to do?

Vicki Welsh has a tutorial on her website for anyone with this problem.  You can find it here.  I wrote to her asking if it would help with dye migration as well as an all-out bleed.  She thought it would.  hmmm.  I had the Kirkland's Free & Clear, which I used, but it didn't take out all the pink.  I went to the store and bought Dawn, not realizing that I needed Dawn Pure.  They didn't have that at Savemart.  *sigh*

After 48 hours of soaking, with two different detergents, this is what the blocks look like.

It's a definite improvement, but the back of the flowers are still pink.  Here is what the quilt looks like at this very minute:

The quilt is pinned into place and drying in today's expected 100 degrees.  Tomorrow, I will unveil the final result.  Thanks for checking in!

One More Day

 Well, looks like Blogger still loves flipping my pictures.  I wish I knew how to take a vertical shot and then have it post vertically.  boo.  Here's a horizontal shot, taken on the day we had blue sky.  Hubby was along for several days.  That's him in the foreground.

 For the most part, the skies have been grey.  June Gloom reigns.

 Hubby brought flowers before he left.  aww.  Unfortunately, there are no vases in this facility.  It was either a wine glass, a coffee cup, or an empty water bottle.  I chose the water bottle.

 I made it down to the beach.  This is my new Facebook profile picture.  I'm not sure how long I'll keep it, but it works for now.

And now that I've gone solo, I set up my machine and went to work.  First, I finished the trapunto quilt that I showed on the 28th.  I can't wait to get it home and wash it...and hope that it flattens when it dries.

 Yesterday, I finished this baby quilt.  yay!  One last finish in May, and already one finish in June.  Am I on a roll, or what?!

 One of our favorite places to eat is Madison Square Garden Cafe.  It's got all kinds of eclectic kitsch that makes you smile.

 I loved this portion of a mermaid encircled mirror.  I could use those fish in a quilt, couldn't you?

 The corner pottery shop is also a favorite.  The colors brighten up even the greyest day.

Tomorrow I head back to the valley.  Today's high in Laguna Beach is expected to be 75.  Today's high at home?  102.  It's going to be rough to re-acclimate.  I am not looking forward to it.  But home is home, and it's time for me to go back.  In the meantime, I have about 8 more sewing hours ahead of me.  I'd best make the most of it!