A Prairie Home Quilts

Phase Two is complete. The fabric was moved from my closet onto the shelves I bought and put in the closet in this room.  You can see a few of the plastic bins holding WIPs up on the top shelf.

I moved the dry sink onto the wall away from my design wall.  On paper it looked like it would be a tight squeeze between it and the file cabinet near the desk — like I’d have to turn sideways to fit — but I can fit through there just fine.  I’ve decided to make a pressing board that will cover the top of the dry sink using Sharon Schamber’s video instructions. That will be a Phase Three project.

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I bought two 4′ x 8′ sheets of styrofoam to use as a design wall surface.  The wall slopes down to 7′ 6″ though so I need to cut them down and mark and cut out the spot for the electrical outlet.  I’ve purchased gray fleece to cover them.  Another Phase Three project.

I needed more table space if I plan to do more machine quilting.  Mom had this table she got at a yard sale for $5 in the garage.  Her plan was to refinish it but she said I could have it.  It measures 48″ long x 30″ wide.

I moved the Singer treadle tables — one on the left to use as a small cutting surface while I’m piecing.  The other on the right which, as you can see, is sort of a catch-all space.  [You thought I was so neat, right?] You can see more plastic bins holding WIPs on the right behind the rulers in the picture.  I use these so that I can just take whatever I want to work on with me while I’m house sitting.  Makes it easy to just grab a few projects and go.  The white cart under the table is not working for me as I had hoped.  I need to find a home for it in another room.

Ludo [AKA Freckle Lips or Mr. Pink Ears] is allowed to sleep on the treadle tables…

When I move the sewing machine off to the left, I have a nice space for cutting fabric on the table.  Unfortunately Ludo loves to sleep right where I’m working and I have to keep moving him back to the treadle table.

Total spent to date: Basket $1, Inkwell $1, Saucer $1, Shelf Unit $20, Love Plaque $4, Colored Bottles $20, 2 Sheets Styrofoam $20, Fleece $25, Duct Tape $4, Double Sided Tape $5 = $101

Need to Buy: 2 new cutting mats, goose neck lamp, wall rack for rulers, purple paint, quilt rack for wall over dry sink.

Phase Three projects: Pressing surface, design wall, move out white cart, find permanent place to keep Singer 401 and overhead projector, hang ruler rack and quilt rack, more wall decorations.

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1. HST for Blush Bold Streak
2. Flying Geese for Blush Bold Streak
3. HST for Floral Streak of Lightning
4. Chain piecing HST
5. 24 3″ Hexagon Alphabet Fairies for Fancy Hexagons
6. Color of Fruit for Liberated Amish

Also finished but not pictured bindings for Blush Bold Streak and Red, White & Black Bold Streak, recut setting triangles for Plaid Streak of Lightning, and finished sewing HST and piano key border for Liberated Amish.

Be back in a week!

Back in January, Tonya [The Unruly Quilter AKA:  LazyGalQuilting] started on online get together where we were to create a quilt using liberated techniques based on an Amish quilt design of our choice.  Our finished quilts were to include letters somewhere on the front.

I finally settled on this quilt as my inspiration.  I had some solids from the Michael Miller Krystal line but none of the colors that I had seemed suitable to my design.  I was trying to order fabric online and kept adding more and more colors to my cart; ending up with way more fabric than I needed for this project.  I decided I needed to set some parameters for color choices. Many of the color names were foods so first I added all the food named colors to my cart.  There were too many greens so I decided to put just the fabric colors named for fruit.  [Okay, so my mind works in bizarre ways but I say --  whatever works.] I ended up with citron, olive, raspberry, wine, grape, blueberry, plum, papaya, mandarin, mango and pomegranate — olive because I wanted two greens and wine…   well, a glass of wine goes well with anything.  Oh, and black for one border and the stripes in the HST.

This is the EQ6 file that I did for my initial design idea.  It’s not an exact duplicate of the idea I had in mind but helped me see how my color choices were going to look together.  After getting my fabrics with all the fruity names, I decided to call this quilt “Tutti Fruitti.”  My initial idea included putting the quilt name, Liberated Amish 2010, my name, and town/state in the borders.

As I was fondling fabric, my design idea morphed.  I loved the bright colors against the black so decided instead to make one, larger black border instead of using the wine color.  And then there were those fruity names…  just so much more fun than name, rank and serial number, don’t you think?

So there you have it — the color of fruit.  Now bip on over to the Liberated Amish 2010 Get Together to see what everyone else has been up to.  There are quite a few finished projects.  [Yes, I better get a move on!] If you’re inspired to try some strip pieced letters, Tonya has a book coming out in December and Brenda [Scraps and Strings] has a tutorial here.

I, Erin Klein, pledge to talk more about my processes, even when I can’t quite put them in words or be sure I’m being totally clear.   I’m going to put my thinking and my gut feelings out there.

[Trust me, you have no idea how my thought processes link from one thing to the next...  It could be good for a giggle or two.]

Thoughts and inspiration behind the pledge can be found here on r0ssie’s blog.

I leave on Friday to house sit for a week without internet access.  I have a few blog entries scheduled to post.  Hopefully they will.  I have an update on my sewing space redo, portions of my Liberated Amish quilt to share and updates on the four Streak of Lightning quilts that are in process.  [Yes, one has officially morphed into four...]

Now if anyone has any idea of where to find some of those elves that the shoemaker had that came in during the night and finished up his work, I would LOVE to hear about it.  I love the process of creating — I am easily inspired, love to design, collect the fabrics and begin a quilt.   But once I see how it’s going to come together — I’m ready to move on.  If I could find some of those elves to finish up some of my WIPs, I’d be in heaven. I could start a new quilt everyday! Without guilt. Anyone got any leads on where I might find them??

So what happens to a person who knows they need to eat a certain way in order to feel well and that same person has instead been eating with reckless abandon?  Well for me, it’s not a pretty thing.  Physically, I’m miserable.  My brain feels like its synapses are firing through Jello.  Aches, pains, brain fog, female issues, misery.  Yeah, not really conducive to being a quilting fool.  Or something like that…  I haven’t felt up to doing much of anything and so I haven’t been.  The question is, do I want to excuse myself so I can continue to eat with reckless abandon?  Not really.  I think it’s time to once again begin the journey back to wellness . [sigh]

I have managed to stimulate the economy with some fabric purchases thanks to temporary work for the census however.  Buying fabric always cheers me up. In lieu of finished projects, I thought maybe you’d like to see some of my recent purchases.

These are solids [or something close to it] for the Liberated Amish Get Together hosted by Tonya.  It’s from Michael Miller’s Krystal line.  And yes, I have more than just two neat piles of fabric done on this. . . [I can't believe Firefox just crashed and my almost finished post has almost completely vanished and I have to start over.  Poof!  Can I cry?]

I ordered another tone-on-tone to use with the miscut brown setting triangles described here. Then, since the one Streak of Lightning was becoming two [one with plaids & one with florals], I needed more setting triangle fabric for the first one.  That’s what the black is for.  The brown at the top of the photo is backing fabric.  I also ordered my own Setting Triangle ruler.

Then I decided to experiment with Bold Streak. [partially pictured here] I wondered what it would look like in patterned fabric instead of the solid red, black and white.  These fabrics are some of the Blush collection by Basic Grey for Moda. They seem to have a pink blush to them in the photo but they aren’t that pink nor is the red that bright.

I ordered the fabric on the top right as the center panel for my Jane Austen Patchwork quilt.  Hated it.  Ordered the second one instead.  I think it will work.  We’ll see when I start getting diamonds assembled.  I still need sashing material for that project but I’m going to start printing diamonds.  Oh, the fabric is Aubrielle by designer Marianne Elizabeth for RJR Fabrics.

Lots of fun fabrics to fussy cut for my Patchwork of the Crosses quilt.  There are some border stripes, geometrics, paisleys and more in the pile.

This is Alphabet Flower Fairies by Michael Miller and some fat quarters for a few Christmas projects.  The Flower Fairy fabric has already been cut into 3″ hexagons for a quilt similar to Janet’s quilt designed by Kerry Dear that uses hexagons and diamonds.

And finally, a bunch more fat quarters for another hexagon quilt using Inklingo 3″ hexagons and diamonds.  The fabrics on the bottom right are more Lucy Boston POTC fabrics.

And now you know why I need to reclaim my health. . .  so I can use all this lovely fabric.  LOL

So did I befriend any dragons during my recent absence? [If you aren't really into analyzing life's journeys spiritually, you can just skip right on by this last part.]  As I said, when I’m eating poorly, I’m feeling poorly.  When I know that I should be eating right and I’m not, then the critical voices in my head start beating me up mentally.  They soon have me drowning in mental yuckiness compounded by the physical misery.  [Yup, it sometimes happens when you are used to hearing real live critical voices for a big part of your life. . .]   Critical voices can be like dragons — waiting to breathe their fire on you and fry you to a crisp.  Not a pretty sight. Since it’s not a part of my nature any more to take offense or put up a strong defense, I thought perhaps I should befriend the dragons, err. . . critical voices — you know, listen to what they were telling me and try to take heed instead of trying to slay them.  I thought maybe that’s what was called for as a part of this journey back to wellness. But Someone important needed to weigh in on the matter.

Someone: Erin, you know dragons aren’t real right?

Me: Uhm. Yeah. Right.  Dragons can’t hurt me, can they?

Someone: That’s right!  And those critical voices in your head?  They aren’t real either.

Me: OHHH!  Yeah. Riiight.  And they can’t hurt me either. . .

Someone: Exactly!

And the clouds parted, light shone and the angels sang.  [just kidding]  But it truly was a very powerful moment.

Be back soon.

With all my “road running” I have not spent near enough time working on these this month.  I’m just taking stock and trying to motivate myself for a few finishes as we near the end of the month.

1. Leftovers Again – Untouched.
2. Plaid Bargello – Still just strips. . .
3. Striped Shirt Boxes – I loved the ones I saw everyone making and now that I’ve started one, it’s just not making my skirt fly up.  I guess it’s all the cutting.
4. Crooked Path Table Topper – Finished top.
5. Scrappy Patchwork of the Crosses – First block is done.
6. Nevada – Untouched.
7. Baby Girl Bug – 4 rows of hexagons sewn.
8. Variable Star – Untouched.
9. Plaid 9 Patch – Untouched.
10. Rocky Glen – Untouched.
11. Streak of Lightning – This is the one that I messed up cutting the setting triangles and now the one project has become two — one in plaids and one in florals.  I did get more fabric ordered and the setting triangles cut for the plaid version.
12. Bold Streak – I have one more section of HST to put together and this one will become a quilt top.
13. Field of Flowers – Untouched.
14. Rose Basket – Untouched, but I did rehang it on the design wall hoping to get inspired.  It’s so close to done.
15. Layer Cake – 1 more block done.
16. Liberated Amish Get Together
17. Frederica Josephson Quilt

Cross one off the list and add two more.  That is what we’re supposed to do, right?

1. Layer Cake