January progress, February's beginning

Happy new year!

Sorry that I'm late in wishing you a great new year! I'm hoping to feel better enough that I can get more done and create some more finishes.

This past month of January, my goal was to finish quilting the two mini ModaLove quilts.

I've also been able to spend more time quilting, more days of this past month, than I have in a very long time. I haven't been feeling well for such a long time, and I'm trying to push through it.

The other part of my goal for January was to finish the quilting on the Autism Swoon for my son. I didn't finish, but I feel like I'm making a lot of progress. 

A couple of weeks ago, after I pulled it out, my son came  this up to me and said "Mom, are you going to finish my quilt now? I really need a bigger quilt before I'm a big teenager!"

I laughed and asked "Did you just remember about it, or did you see that I pulled it out to work on it again?"

"I see you're working on it again! When will it be done?"

He just turned 10, and the baby just turned 3, so that means I've been working on this quilt for just over 3 years. Yikes.

This big quilt is really heavy, because my husband insisted that I use double batting. Not only will it be warm, but it will feel a little like a weighted blanket, which has been shown to reduce stress and anxiety in people with autism.

This is great, but it's also made it difficult and slow and energy-zapping to push and pull it through my little Bernina to quilt it. Sometimes it just hasn't been fun, and sometimes I've wanted to cry. I haven't touched it for at least a year or more, because my health problems have zapped my energy and motivation and mental health. I know what's going on now, and trying to get treatment, so I'm determined to finish this quilt!

Puzzle filler

We're settling back in from our trip. Celebrated J's birthday a bit late.

(More on both of those later.)

Trying to get back in a rhythm is hard, because hubby lets the boys stay up later during the summer, and I feel obligated to stay with them for family time, so I get less quilty time at night.

I've been frustrated to the point of crying with quilting the Swoon. Each block is a huge 24", so the quilt is big, heavy, and the areas to quilt are larger. I spend more time repositioning and dragging the quilt around and through my machine than actual stitching. I can't seem to quilt straight lines, especially longer lines, because of moving and dragging the quilt. And I have to stop halfway through a line to move my hands and the quilt, so it ends up wavy and jags happen when I start again. Even if I mark the lines.

I decided that instead of the large Starbursts in the corners, I would mark a 1-inch grid and try puzzle filler. I love the way it looks, and it's much easier to quilt.

The spaces seem smaller, and there's less large movement. And it's very forgiving if you accidentally go wonky.

Yay!

And it goes really well with the whole theme of the quilt.

December Finish

Wow! 2013 flew by!

After reviewing and re-prioritizing my goals, I guess I got more done than I thought.

1--Yes! I got that Swoon pillow done tonight! Not in time for S.'s birthday, but close enough.

Nice hidden lapped zipper, huh?

2--yes! I definitely got those Cars pillowcases done. S. loved those for his Christmas gift.

3--Yes! I finished copying and printing all the templates, foundations, and cutting instructions for the baby's star quilt.

I just had to give up hopes of getting anything else done on that. The condition of my hands is just not going to let me. That will need to wait until after the baby arrives, and the swelling hopefully subsides to the point where it no longer affects the nerves and tendons in my wrists.

4--Yes, I did manage to finish stabilizing the Swoon quilt. I did find some thread that matched. And I did manage to start quilting a few block spaces around the edge of the quilt.

I work with a nurse in the ER who happens to live about two miles from me, and who offered that I could come over and use her Handiquilter Sweet Sixteen. I gave her a call, and she said we could figure out a time after the holidays. (Hopefully, I'll get some quilting in before the baby comes!)

I got more done in December than I thought, with something on each of my goals.

I'm now linking up with Melissa of Sew Bittersweet Designs.

More Swoon practice

Hi to all !

Christmas is getting closer, and so is my baby's due date! I'm 33 weeks along!

I've been trying to take it easy, stay off my feet, and do little things. 

1--I've been cutting some new stencils for quilting designs in the centers of the Swoon stars (mostly from Quiltmaker's "501 Quilting Motifs" book). I enjoy cutting my own stencils, but I have a single blade Fiskars craft knife, so a double-bladed stencil cutter from www.quiltingstencils.com is definitely on my wish list.

2--I've been tweaking color arrangement and printing cutting charts for the baby's quilt. I love my Quilt-Pro software for this step. It prints a color thumbprint of the block, plus a black-and-white chart next to it that is labeled by patch, then a breakdown of all the patches by color and cut, with how many of each patch and sizes.

Today, I made copies of foundations for the paper-pieced blocks.

3--I've been continuing my fun with Dot-to-Dot quilting all week. I'm getting better, and quicker. I've nearly got the practice block/pillow done. It's great for auditioning designs. Angela Walters is a great teacher, and gives positive encouragement and feedback to questions. I tend to ask a lot of questions!

I ordered the "Rainbow" cotton thread set from Connecting Threads, thinking it would have all the colors I need for this colorful quilt. There are some great colors in the set! The Red is what I've been using to piece the firefighter quilt and the Swoon blocks--it's perfect matching the backgrounds. I think the Orange will be perfect. The Lime green is the perfect color, but still too dark. Above, you can see the green thread stand out in all the star and diamond patches--ooh my stitches are wobbly! I've pointed to the green thread against the white background with dots.

Now I've used pure white in the pentagon shapes between a the diamonds, with the white-background-dots print, and that works much better! I need a paler green, and a pale blue for the pale blue patches. That's the problem with ordering off the Internet and a computer screen, not being able to match colors with your own eyes and fabric in hand.

My local stores don't carry a lot of high-quality machine quilting thread. For example, I live in the home state of Superior Threads, and no shops in my county carry their products!  We all know that we quilters are hands-on, touchy-feely people when it comes to fabric and colors!  I love working with the King Tut cotton line, and really want to try the So Fine polyester.

For goodnight:

Baby Update:

At my last two doctor's appointments, this baby has been measuring 2 and 3 weeks larger than gestational age. Hmmm, no wonder my back is hurting and I'm stiff and sore. My ankles are swollen huge, my poor hands and wrists ache and feel pins and needles constantly. I found some mild compression nylon stockings last weekend, and after wearing them for two 12-hour shifts at work, my ankles sure look better!

In my pictures, you can see I'm wearing my Dritz Creative Comfort compression gloves. I wear them a lot, and I even wear them under my Fons and Porter machine quilting gloves!

I have a feeling my 4-yr-old is not going to be sharing the baby blankets well, so I'll need a bunch of new ones. It's very cold right now...hitting 0 Fahrenheit at night and not reaching 30 during the day. The baby's room is the coolest room in the house because it's north-facing, so extra blankets and quilts are needed. Especially if my body decides it has had enough stress and this baby needs to be delivered prematurely, like both of his big brothers. I need lots of prayers and good wishes to get to 37 weeks and a healthy baby and body.

November Progress/Finish

Happy Thanksgiving and end of November ! I cooked my Thanksgiving meal today. With me working in the Emergency Room, and my husband and both his brothers working public safety jobs on Thanksgiving, we get together whenever we can for dinner. And I cook.

I'm exhausted, but I need to report my November finish with SewBittersweetDesigns.

I'm not sure I really had a completion for November.

I finished two quilt tops (Swoon and fire station quilt).

I finished the backing and layering and basting the Swoon quilt. I have started quilting it....starting with stabilization by stitching in the ditch. It's the biggest quilt I have nearly finished...ever! My hubby insisted that I use a double layer of batting. So this quilt is big and heavy, and with less than 7" of machine arm space on my little Bernina, it's extremely difficult to fit and maneuver, even with a lot of table space.

These are my attempts to scrunch and roll the big quilt. It take more time to keep adjusting and wiggling the quilt than it does to actually stitch the seam!

If you're wondering what those little blue blobs are on top of the quilt, those are my Fons and Porter machine quilting gloves. They are great!

Swoon top and backing; autism

Hi!

I've had a busy week organizing the Swoon blocks, sewing the top together, and sewing the backing together. I just finished the backing!

I had an amazing evening when I decided to organize the blocks. Since the quilt is for my son S., I asked him to help mommy with his quilt and "put the quilt puzzle together." he giggled and came running. He has Autism, like this quilt is celebrating, so the first amazing thing about the situation is that he came over to be involved. And that he stayed engaged and paid attention!

Actually J. came running too and wanted to help. Not bad help to have both of them, considering it's already difficult for me to get up and down with this growing baby belly.

They helped me lay the blocks in the 3x3 grid on the living room floor. S. had to count each one. It was so amazing, because both boys looked on, and moved blocks when I asked them to. When I asked S. if he liked a combination, he nodded yes or no. He followed directions. The first time he moved a block, I asked him to smooth it out so we could see the whole block...the next time he moved one, he automatically smoothed it out and lined it up on the grid. When I thought we were done, I asked him if he thought we were done, and he said yes. I asked him if he liked his quilt. "yes!"

I told them, "let's put numbers on the blocks so I know where they will go later and sew them together." and S. ran around the quilt, putting the notes in order on the blocks in the grid, starting where I told him to start, and doing the order by himself.

The picture is little J. holding up my chart of the colors, and placements, sitting on the blocks.

S. wandered away while I took pictures, hence little brother J. is in the pictures!

I called him back, saying we had one more decision to make. I laid out two lengths of the reds under the blocks, to try sashing. One was the solid red background, and the other was the red puzzle pieces print.

I asked S. which one, and he pointed to the puzzles. Then I decided to try just the puzzles:

(Here's little J being the picture hound again.)

And asked him one more time "do you like it?"

 "yes!" he said.

So to recap, it's a miracle in a way with what we accomplished together, with his Autism.

1-- he helped make decisions.

2--he pointed to his choices

3--he helped move things around, following directions

4--he stayed on task. He was engaged and interacting nearly the entire time.

5--he answered questions with words and gestures.

6--he demonstrated his knowledge and skills when asked to, and also voluntarily.

7--he gave me fist bumps and high fives, and even a hug when we were done. His smile is beautiful!

It makes me smile and I am really thankful, for all the progress he has made in the last few years. There was a time when we despaired if he would ever be able to do any of those numbers up above. He was almost completely nonverbal until nearly four years old. He gave me his first real kiss, knowing what it meant, sometime after his fourth birthday. He was five when I first heard "I love you" from him.  He is such a blessing and a sweetheart.

 (This morning, He climbed in top of the bed while I was trying to wake up, and cuddled right next to me, saying "I love you" clearly, looking right at me. I hadn't said it first! Then he kissed my cheek and cuddled in for a hug.) These times are so precious.

So I haven't taken a picture of the completed top yet. Oops!

Swoon #9 and #10

And I'm finished making Swoon blocks! Yippeeee!!

Here are blocks #9 and #10 :

As much as I love all the other blocks, I think the red, white and blue blocks are my favorite. They just sparkle !

(although it's hard to tell from the lighting.  It's midnight and in the basement!)

I'm excited and amazed !

I pre-shrunk all the backing fabric today, in between sewing. Now I get to decide where each block will go in the top, and cut and add sashing.

I even asked S. what he wanted me to do with the extra block (#10) : whether he wanted it on the back of his quilt, or a pillow. He said he wanted a pillow!

Are there 24" pillow forms?

Swoon 7 & 8, 100 Blocks Blog Tour fun

This week has felt really productive for me. There hasn't been many hours at work to pick up (boo for my budget), but that means lots of time to sew.

I had my 28 week doctor's appointment this week...the baby sounds good and my blood pressure is great. Last Saturday, my best friend hosted a fun baby shower for me. Not as many people showed up as I had hoped for, but it was still wonderful and fun.

I think I'm suffering from a nasty head cold or a sinus infection. Hard to tell, but I'm miserable.

I've been working on more Swoon blocks.

# 7 and #8

Number 8 had two directional prints--in one block that was hard to piece!

I thought I had all the directionals figured out in the piecing of the flying geese and HST.

I guess you just do the best you can do, with a limited amount of fabric (fat quarters). Sometimes the print directions just don't work out the way you want, even after careful planning and marking and sewing.

Then I spent a lot of time this week, with my feet propped up, following Quiltmajer Magazine's 100 Blocks Volume 8 Blog Tour. Once again, it was a lot of blogs each day, but sew much fun! I really enjoy meeting the blog designers, hearing their inspiration behind their blocks and the design process, and seeing lots of color options and quilt options. And answering questions as part if giveaway comments helps me to learn more about myself as a person and quilter.

There's still time to comment and enter some giveaways ! www.Quiltmaker.com and go to "blog" Quilty Pleasures 

Have fun and good luck!

I can't wait to see if I win any giveaways!

Swoon #6

Hello.

I just finished my Pieces of Hope Swoon block #6. Only four more to go!

The pattern calls for 9 blocks, in a 3x3 layout with narrow sashes. I'm trying to decide what to do with block #10.

Should I piece #10 into the backing of the quilt?

Or make a throw pillow to match the quilt?

The beautiful blue-on-blue puzzle piece is the symbol for Autism Speaks, the national organization that promotes research about Autism and Autism Awareness.

The symbol is a puzzle piece, because so much is still unknown about Autism. Autism is a "spectrum", meaning the disability has a wide range of manifestations, yet each person who has Autism displays similar groups of traits and behaviors.

I get more excited as each block takes shape. 

Swoon #5

Swoon block #5 is finished.

Five more to go!

More Swoon

Hello. I know it's late, but I just got home from work and needed a few minutes to decompress and show off.

Swoon blocks #3 and #4 are finished!

I just love how they're turning out!

Six more blocks to complete.

September finish

Time to check in for the end of September with my monthly goals! September has flown by. I'm linking up with Sew Bittersweet's Year of Lovely Finishes.
http://blog.sewbittersweetdesigns.com/?p=4034

1--appliqué the rescue vehicles wheels. Yay! All finished!

I removed the paper foundations prior to starting the appliqué satin-stitching. Not a good idea, I learned! 

The fabric started puckering underneath the wheels and the wheels themselves drew up a bit.

I had lots of scraps of tear-away stabilizer left from machine-embroidering the block of the month, so I tore off strips and used a glue stick to stick them on while I satin-stitched.

Here you can see on the left, that I didn't have stabilizer and the fabric drew in. On the right are the stabizer strips, and the fabric laid much flatter with less draw-in.

2--I know I said I'd complete four whole Swoon blocks, but it took a different direction. Instead, I was able to finish all the HST and flying geese units for all the blocks. That's a lot of prep work for 8 big blocks. So, I count that as a finish and an accomplishment!

I like putting each block (with all its patches and units) into separate baggies. It really helps keep myself organized, and from getting mixed up with so many pieces and units.

Also, I hate waste, so I created lots of bonus HST from the flying geese. Here they are in a big Baggie. I asked Bonnie Hunter of Quiltville, the scrap queen, for help with block ideas from HST. As always, she delivered! She sent along a chart she found on Pinterest, and another reader of hers pointed me to Quiltmaker Magazine's article on the same topic. Wow, I can't believe I missed that one--until I saw it was at the back of the issue. Check it out on page 75 of the March/April 2013 Quiltmaker magazine.

Thanks Bonnie and friends!

I still have a few days until the end of the month, so maybe I will be able to sew together a whole Swoon block or two.

Although, I need to take a break for a couple of baby shower gifts.

Making a bit of a mess

I'm trying to take things slowly, to take lots of rests, to help my wrists heal. It feels agonizingly ponderous, because I'm so anxious to see some real progress on my projects. I have so many ideas and so many projects...so many friends and family members having babies that I want to make gifts for....not to mention my own baby to prepare for!

And the way my body feels is not helping, either. My body doesn't handle being pregnant well. I'm exhausted all the time. Frequent headaches and dizziness happen often, and that makes it difficult for me to think clearly or pay attention. I'm coming to accept everyday naps as par for the course. And my doctor tells me that joint conditions and aches can be compounded during pregnancy. My wrists and the rest of my body make it difficult for me to work quickly.

One of my favorite sites, the Pregnant Chicken, posted this picture recently. I laughed out loud, because I happened to be feeling pretty badly that day, and it really cheered me up!

Don't get me wrong--I want this baby with all my heart, and I'm so very excited! And I hope that I don't sound complaining or ungrateful for this life growing inside me. I thought I had prepared myself for the pregnancy experience, seeing as my last two were difficult. It's still hard though, and being honest about how you actually feel during pregnancy is rare.

So back to quilting progress!

I've been chain-piecing as many Swoon block units as I can, in short bursts. Even holding my new, very lightweight iron can make my wrist ache. I need to get a better angle or something. 

The part I'm dreading is the trimming of the HSTs and the flying geese. There are so, so many in each Swoon block. I tried to get started trimming tonight, while watching tv, just to take it slowly. (it's not hard to take trimming slowly!). It takes a lot of pressure to hold the square-up ruler steady with one hand, and a lot of pressure to hold a rotary cutter steady with the other hand. I got through two blocks tonight, before my grip gave out in the middle of a cut, and my hand nearly overtook the open blade as I dropped the cutter. Pretty scary!  It was time to quit for the night.

Here's my little pile of messy trimmings!

Anybody want to take care of the trimming for me?  :-)

Remembering 9/11

Wow. 12 years later, and the disasters still horrify and fascinate and pain is still fresh.

Once again, my brother-in-law is posting FB pictures of dad's friends and fellow firefighters that perished in the towers on 9/11.

Here are some of my favorite pictures gleaned from Facebook first thing this morning.

Here is big brother, heading off to the school bus this morning. This is one of our favorite shirts. Daddy went on shift at the fire station this morning. We also have versions of this shirt that say "grandpa" and "uncle" too. "I wanna be a firefighter just like my dad"

This morning, I took little brother down to the city Memorial Park for our city's memorial service. Little brother just wanted to play on the playground as I sat and listened to the program.

Then I tried taking him to story time at the library, and that didn't go over well. I spent the afternoon after lunch, watching little brother and his best little friend running around playing. I was sitting in the sofa, marking HST and flying geese for the remaining Swoon blocks.

After I put the little guys to bed, I opened up my new iron, set up my portable table and portable Olfa cutting/ironing board, and turned on the History Channel to programs for remembering 9/11. (I am watching another one now: Miracle of Stairway B.)  I settled in to fuse tires and hubcaps to rescue vehicles.

(The little blue finger-cover is a new silicone finger-protector. More in those at a later time.)

I used paper towels as a pressing cloth. At least I could toss them if they were sticky with extra fusible web.

Then I worked on pressing HST and flying geese for two Swoon blocks. And then I pressed the bonus HST as well.

I felt that working on my own rescue vehicles was an appropriate way to remember the terrorist attacks and the 343 firefighters that lost their lives, tryi g to save the almost 3,000 others that lost their lives, too.

Goodnight all. May you keep the families and friends of those who died in the towers, in the planes, and in the Pentagon in your prayers.