Camera Face...

 I finished both of my Headstart quilts to take to our guild meeting last night.
Of course, I had to get pictures of them before they went on their way. Tag was
more than happy to help, and Handsome was in charge of taking the pictures.

 I finished the "camouflage" baseball appliques' to cover the crease,

so now the back looks as good the front. I embroidered "Play Ball"
on the top baseball, with the row of balls below to create motion.

I think some little guy will be happy to own this one.

 Of course, Taggart wanted to try it out to make sure

it would be comfortable for afternoon naps, but I said

he'd have to settle for just making sure it was nice and soft.

 I finished the boy's quilt on Monday, and then set about

finishing the little girl's quilt on Tuesday. I had the top

done ahead of time, so I only needed to quilt and bind it

(and add the label) to have it ready to travel to the meeting.

 I love how cheerful and colorful this one is. Tag

said it was too "sweet" for him, so he headed out to

explore the yard instead of hanging around with us.

Now, I bet you're wondering about the title for this post.

Having been married to a professional photographer for over

 thirty years, I learned to get comfortable standing in front of

  the camera. Whether in large group pictures or portraits, I just

decided long ago that I didn't want to be the one person who

wasn't prepared for the shutter. To make sure, I developed

my standard smile whenever I'm aware that there's a camera

around. Handsome has taken to calling it my "camera face".

When other people are around and he's taking the picture,

he now just looks at me, smiles and says, "C.F." and I know

that he's teasing me because of my canned expression.

He told me President George H.W. Bush has a camera face, too.

(He's taken photos of the Bush family often enough to know.)

I'd say that puts me in pretty good company! lol

It's A Jungle Out There...

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I went outside to pull a native weed out of one of my planters on Friday night.  I wasn't wearing gloves. My hand immediately started burning like I'd been  stung by a thousand bees. Nailed by Florida's toxic wild beauty yet again.    My pinkie finger swelled up and continued to burn. I tried to use cold water and ice, and then applied a cortisone cream, but I couldn'tstitch a thing all day Saturday and the itching woke me up again on Saturday night. Nothing  would cool it down or stop the discomfort and so I was miserable.

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When I got up Sunday morning, I prepared our Sunday breakfast and took two Benedryl tablets. Nothing high-powered...two little 25 mg. tablets. I put my head down and woke up at 6 pm. My entire day was a bust!    The swelling has gone down a bit and my hand still itches, but I was able to finish stitching down my boy's quilt baseballs after dinner. I'll finish the decorative touches after I get home from the doctor's office in the morning.  (Is it really time for my annual wellness checkup again already?)    I'm still going to get both of those quilts done in time for our guild meeting.  The most important thing for me to remember is that "It's a Jungle Out There" and I'm no gardener. I'll stay inside in my Garden of Fabrics where I'm safe!    Edited to add this song, suggested by my friend, MaryLou.  You know, I often try to use song titles for my blog posts. I didn't even know this was a song title when I wrote it. Cool! (Thanks, ML. Thanks for the heads-up. You're so right! LOL)   Direct link: http://youtu.be/7j5Be5a86uA

It Was Supposed To Be Easy...

 Choose a backing, sandwich with batting and the top, and quilt. That's all I
needed to do. I secured the backing to my table, pinned everything in place
(more than I needed to) and double-checked to make sure there were no
wrinkles on the back. I meandered until the quilt was assembled. All I'd
have to do would be to add the binding and I'd be finished. Simple, right?

I used the best fabrics. I chose Moda's French General fabric for the back, and
I should have been finished by last evening. Except for one thing...the backing
fabric stretched during the quilting process and left puckers in one back section.

I had to make a decision. How was I going to fix this mess? If I picked out the meandering, I'd have to remove over half the stitching. As it's a Headstart quilt, we are asked to do a lot of quilting so they don't fall apart in the weekly wash.   That means that frogging those stitches would take me all weekend. I'm just like everyone else. I don't really like to pick out mistakes - especially if it's the fabric's fault! I decided that I'd grab a needle and sew a pucker down to see  whether or not it would "disappear" into the quilt. Wishful thinking. It didn't.   After looking at it a little longer, I decided that I'd hand applique' baseballs over the quilting snafu. I'm thinking it's going to look great. Even though it will take another day to do the applique' and red embroidery, I'd much rather spend my time doing this, than undoing something else. I'm happy.   I think it's going to be really cool when it's finished, and I definitely won't be using that fabric as a backing again! I'll be sure to use a nice, crisp,  fabric for the back of the "girly" quilt. I don't want this to happen again.   I'm off for my Saturday morning date with Handsome and then I'll get  this quilt finished so I can move on to the next one. Do something fun, ok?

Headstart Quilting...

 After assembling all my teaching materials for today's class, I decided to

choose fabrics that I'll use to make a boy's Headstart quilt. I'll donate it at

  our guild meeting next Tuesday night. I chose a baseball theme, and I have

 plenty of time for assembly, quilting and binding between now and then.

 Our size requirement for the Headstart quilts is a finished quilt measuring

at least 36" x 42". It can be slightly larger, but once chosen, the quilts are

stored in cubby holes between uses by the kidlets, so they can't be too big.

I'll assemble this one just like the "girly" top I've already made.

 What little girl wouldn't love the flowers with sweet birds and 

bright colors? The main fabric was used to make pj pants for

one of my nieces last Christmas. I only needed a 5" wide strip

the width of the fabric (42-44"), so I had plenty left over for this.

 The boy's quilt will also be 8 blocks wide by 9 blocks long. (4 1/2" finished blocks equals 36" wide by 40 1/2".) I'll add a  1 1/2" border all around to make a finished 38" x 42 1/2" top.)
I'll put the boy's quilt top together after I get home from  teaching today. I'll show you the quilts again after I get them put together and bound. I'll have them finished before Sunday.
Off to get my latte' before heading off to class. Gotta run!

Disappearing Four-Patch...

Do you know about the Disappearing Four-Patch Block?

I learned about it while on Susan's retreat. One of the Donnas was

 working on a number of kidlet quilts...quick and colorful...the whole

time we were together. This one caught my eye so I asked for details.

The Disappearing Four-Patch block begins with a regular Four-Patch, using 

5" squares of fabric. You can also begin with 5" wide strips of fabric - one 

light and one dark. After you sew the strips together, cut into  5" segments.

Then alternate the segments as shown in the first picture and sew them into the

 traditional Four-Patch block. The next step forms the "disappearing" variation.

After pressing the seams on the block, cut one inch from the center seamline on

each side as well as top and bottom. You can see the cut lines in the top picture.

If you use blocks larger than 5", you can adjust the cutting lines to suit your taste.
(The red arrows show cutting lines on both sides, top and bottom of the block.)

Now, leave the center of the block (and the corner blocks) alone and 

rotate each of the bar sections 90º. (You can see the difference between the original block (A)  and the new block (B) in this picture. Your next step is to sew all the new components back together as laid out into one block.   Once you've made the desired number of blocks, you can join them, with or without sashing. An extra border will make a larger kid's quilt.   It doesn't get much easier than that, and the overall effect is bound to make a youngster very, very happy. I'm going to be making one of these very soon. (I want to finish two Headstart quilts in April.) I'll be heading over to Crazy Quilter's today to teach another class.

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May Your Cup Runneth Over With Joy...

Art by Jennifer Lambein - studiopetite on Etsy

I LOVE this image! Isn't it vibrant and fun?

Did I tell you yet that I'm planning a complete remodel in the studio?

Yup. I'm going to need LOTS of coffee to get through this!

It's going to be a lot of work. First, the room has to be completely emptied.

That, in itself, is going to be a monumental task. No getting around it,

though. I need to get everything out of there so I can start from the

ground up...new flooring, a new paint job and all new (to me) shelving.

This remodel will take place in April, so I have a lot to do between now

and "Re" Day. I'm going to be sorting, purging and selling those things

that will not be going back into the studio when it's all REmodeled.

Today, I'm finishing up our year-end bookwork, but I'll be back in the

studio tomorrow. I have two Headstart quilts to make, as well as three

special orders...two iPad cases and an organizer. I can't wait to get at them.

I think I'll have that cup of coffee now.

Don't forget to enter my Five Year Blog Anniversary Giveaway!

(Click here to leave a comment to be entered.)

Good Luck, everybody!

Headstart Quilting...

 Each year, members of our quilt guild are asked to create quilts for 

three different charities...Hospice, Toys for Tots and Headstart.

The Headstart quilts are made for pre-schoolers who get to choose their own, use it for rest time through the year and then keep it at the end of the year. It has to be quilted at least every four inches because they are washed every week and need to stand up to that extra laundering. There is also a size requirement, and they need to measure at least 36" x 42".

I made this quilt top on Monday and quilted it yesterday. Today I'll bind it and then it will be ready to donate next week at our guild meeting. It measures 42" x 42".

We were told that we needed more boys' themes, so I decided to use some cute dinosaur, paw print and circle fabrics. I had a lot of fun quilting it, too. I quilted spirals over the circles, "Raahr" and two hearts in the dinosaur blocks and a single, big paw print (echoing those in the fabric) and "woof" in the paw print blocks. Then I just stitched straight rows in the sashes and borders.

One of the cool benefits of making these charity quilts is that I can practice my quilting techniques. As long as the stitching is secure, little kids don't notice a few imperfections, and trust me, there are more than a few!

I'm also going to try a new (to me) binding technique. Rather than machine sew the binding to the right side of the quilt, fold it over and hand stitch it on the back side, I'll try sewing it to the wrong side, fold it over and then (using a specialty stitch) sew down the binding on the right side. I'm hoping it turns out really cute. (I'll let you know.)

I'll try to make one more boy's quilt before next Tuesday so I can hand in two at the meeting. Wish me luck!

Hospice Quilts...

In our quilt guild, we make quilts to donate to various causes. Among them are Headstart quilts for school age children. They get to choose their favorite from the piles that we donate, sleep on them during rest period each day at school, and then keep them to take home at the end of the school year. The Headstart quilts measure 36" square, and because they're washed frequently, must be surface quilted no further than 4" apart.

We also make doll quilts which are donated to the Salvation Army for gift giving during the holidays. Those quilts measure about 24" square and can be any color or pattern of cotton fabric.

We also make Hospice quilts for nursing homes. At the last meeting, there was a call for quilts with a patriotic theme for the veterans in the nursing homes. These quilts have 6 1/2" squares, sewn together in a 6 x 6 block pattern. Each decorative block must alternate with a white (or ivory) block. That way they can be "autographed" by friends and family members of the recipient. Backings are all light colored in case the signatures overflow the front onto the back.

I'm going to make one of the patriotic quilts today to hand in at our August meeting next week. I'm going to alternate the "America" fabric and the navy stars fabric with the white so it's even a little more colorful. I'll take pictures and show you the finished quilt before the end of the week. For now, I'm off to wake up Prissy to get this quilt done!

Happy Quilting!

PS. This post marks post number 1191. Nine more posts to 1200! I think there might be a giveaway in the near future to celebrate!

Helping Headstart...

The quilt guild donates new quilts and blankets to our local Headstart program every year. These blankets are donated to 4 and 5 year old children to help prepare them for school. The quilts are used for afternoon naps, and our goal is to provide a quilt for each child.

There are usually lots of girly quilts, but not many are donated that are strictly for boys. I decided my quilt will be a boys quilt. I chose a line of fabric that has a hockey theme. The Florida Lightning hockey team is a big deal around here, so it just seemed appropriate.

Headstart quilts should measure approximately 36" x 42", which really only requires two 1 yard cuts of fabric (one for the front, one for the back). The kids get to choose from the selection of quilts, so I can image some little boy picking this one.

I'll be using one of the fabrics for the center panel, and then adding different borders around it. I didn't just want to make a whole fabric quilt. I wanted it to be a little more special. I'll machine quilt the layers in a meandering pattern. Shouldn't take very long to complete. I'll be back on Saturday to show you the finished quilt.