Lazy Daisy Quilts (and Reads)

Hey Twilters! Today I gave an update on my dad's recovery, talked about the quilts I've worked on lately, and reviewed a book I read. Don't worry, I gave no spoilers. This was Dad's arm the day after the angio procedure. It later turned even darker from wrist to shoulder, before eventually fading back to normal. The Dr. kept apologising for the bruising, and we thanked him for it, since it was the first step that made the whole recovery possible! Here we are before they took him into bypass surgery. I'll have to post a new picture of him when I see him next week. It's amazing how good he looks! Even healthier than before these surgeries. It's amazing what good blood flow will do for you :)   Now, on to the quilts... Firstly, here is my Scrap in a Box, because I don't think I've showed you this one yet. I love how the fat sashing turned out.   And here is Falling Charms   Here's Birdie's quilt, with a close up of some of the quilting.   And here's what I've done so far on the background of my Twilter Round Robin quilt. Let me know if you have any suggestions or ideas on how to quilt the bright areas of this quilt. The book I reviewed on the podcast is I Saw A Man by Owen Sheers   Thanks for stopping by! Go Quilt Something

I finally quilted Cake Sauce! And I made matching pillow cases. Ya know, cuz I'm awesome. I also worked on this little quilt I'm calling Moby. It looks like he is caught in a hurricane.. I also laid out my Scrap In A Box blocks.. And I'm trying out some fat sashings to see how I like it. I inserted a piece at the end of the podcast of my son, Ian playing and singing. He was on the radio this morning, and I'm so proud of him. These aren't professional quality recordings, but if you'd like to hear more, check him out on soundcloud. He writes his own music and lyrics. My favourites are Brighter Now, Sunset Eyes, and Rest My Heart... and all the other ones.  ha

HI! look at me, posting right on time, two weeks in a row! BOOM! I'm loving my Scrap In A Box blocks and I am excited to see how it all comes together.. I think a few of the Cherry Bomb fabrics made it into this quilt, and I love that. However, I am still not happy with whats happening on the Grand Illusion.. ugh. I may take it apart and make it into two different quilts. I want to use up the units I have made, but I don't like them together. At. All. This week I talked about the pros and cons of my job.. And these are the books I mentioned: The Husband's Secret by Liane Moriarty The Night Sister by Jennifer McMahon The Mean Streak by Sandra Brown Here's what Pam and I are reading.. Join us, and we can have a little Twilter Book Club! The Girl With All the Gifts by M. R. Carey Now, let's quilt! (and read)

>insert trumpet blasts here

I'm making quilts from this book, for my nieces... Pacific Crest, and Triton Cove   I've read a lot of books this month, I chatted briefly about some of them. I forgot to mention when I talked about The Haunting of Hill House, by Shirley Jackson, that I listened to the audiobook and love the narrator, Jim Dale. He is one of my favourites and I could listen to him read anything. He does an amazing read of the Harry Potter books, for which he has won  awards! Here are a few books that you may like..When I can't decide which new to me author to try, I can always go back to ones like Koontz and Brown, and although it likely won't be a mind blowing book, it's a satisfactory palate cleanser. Bird Box by Josh Malerman if you're looking for something strange and a little spooky. Explore your fears. book quote- “It's better to face madness with a plan than to sit still and let it take you in pieces.” The Alibi by Sandra Brown if you're in the mood for a murder mystery, peppered with a bit of romance. The Good Guy by Dean Koontz if you're ready for some suspense and hero stuff. This guy accidentally intervenes when a bar patron attempts to deliver information to a paid killer about a target. Now, he's gotta try to save this unsuspecting victim right? Thanks for listening! Go do.. something    

Hey! I've got a little quilty talk... Applique, Dear Jane, and some thoughts about which quilts I should enter into a local show. Also, my round robin* came home to roost! I am thrilled with how this turned out About the 40 minute mark, I stop talking about sewing and gab about some books I've read, including my favourite book of my January reads, Songs of Willow Frost by Jamie Ford. I loved this book so much. I went to the google to find more info about this author, and when his picture came up, I thought, "well, he's cute" Then I realized.. he sorta looks a little like my husband. Hey, we like what we like, eh? *I will update this post as soon as I can get some pics of my Round Robin, and the finished Harry Potter quilt. Go read and/or quilt something!

A little bit of Dear Jane Quilty talk, where I am on the Bonnie Hunter Grand Illusion Mystery, and why I've been so quiet. I recorded this episode several weeks ago, and was unable to upload because of my jacked up blog situation. I still haven't fixed it completely, but at least I got the ftp account working again, and can upload files again. My posts may be a little more bookish and less quilty for a while, but I promise I will get back to quilting soon. Now I'm gonna go read something.. Daisy

Hey!!! Please forgive me for being absent for so long. I have been under the weather and extremely busy trying to get things done lately. Also, I apologize if part of this episode have some background noise differences, and a disjointed feel at times. I had to record on two different days and splice it together in chunks. I hope it's not too boring hearing about all the quilt celebs I ran into at market :-) The pattern I mentioned for my dress is Simplicity 2147. Here I am in my blue one. So comfy.   Please visit, like, and share our Raffles for Roger page. Thank you for all the support and most of all, the kinds words and prayers. I will see you twilters on friday! We'll have a google hangout (if I can figure out how to start one) and an Aurifil sponsored giveaway here on the blog. Go Quilt Something! P.s. I wanted to clarify that when I said "I work in a quilt shop and need to use the good stuff in my quilts" I didn't mean to imply that kona cotton isn't good. I actually love the stuff, but we don't stock it, and what I meant was that I need to use the solids we have so I can hang my samples in the shop. Hope that clarifies, I have no problem with the quality of kona.. Just don't like that it's also in big box chain stores.

Headsup.. I got weepy around the 33 minute mark.. That title isn't what you're thinking.. so before you run away screaming, let me explain that it's a reference to glitter.. ya know, glitter is the herpes of the crafting world. It is incredibly easy to spread, and you can never get rid of it. In the re-recording of this episode I totally forgot to talk about repairing old quilts.. derp derp derp... I forgot last episode too!! so let me just explain here. This quilt came into the shop and looked as if it had been washed.. vigorously. The seam allowance were worn away to nothing in some areas. The sashing fabrics were very thin and fragile.  I couldn't just sew up the holes and then quilt it. The puckering was beyond troublesome. I called the owner and gave her the option of having me take it apart and rebuild it. I found fabrics in the shop that were very close in colour and value to replace the sashing. Before sewing it all back together, I used French Fuse on the back of the applique blocks to stablize them. I then trimmed them all to the same size.. 15" x 22" Before After 3 I am also working on another repair that is a machine applique Overall Sam quilt. I don't have a picture of it, but I do have some advice.. It has a zigzag stitch holding down the appliques and some of the pieces are completely missing. I am hand appliqueing replacement pieces right up to the line of the red zigzag stitching that is still in place. It's a perfect blend and hardly noticeable. If you are replacing appliques pieces on an already finished quilt, I recommend taking it over to a lightbox and tracing pieces to fit right into those spaces.. Don't use original templates that may have been used when the quilt was made. This quilt has the original ones in a bag, but most of them do not match up.. whether that's from shrinking and washing or simply a novice quilter's skills, I don't know. But the best way to get a good match to is to trace the space you need to fill.     Here's my battle wound... please remove straight pins before giving a quilt top to your longarmer.. !     Here's a pic collage of the art collage quilting class!   Here is the quilt I donated to the kids' art club fundraising. It is quilted with a gorgeous blue and yellow variegated thread.   I know I am forgetting something... but that is what they make the edit button for. I will post pics of the first raffle quilt, along with more info on how to buy tickets very soon. Thanks for listening!  

Heeyyyy! I had so much to talk about that I yammered on for over an hour, and never got around to talking about what today's topic was going to be.. SO.. I will save that for next time, and rest assured.. it's actually quilt related. HA! Here's what I'm working on today.. Here's some of my son's artwork..   The metallic paint in this is amazing, but isn't captured very well by my eye-phone :-)   And here he is, as a Senior in high school... *sniffle*   He was interviewed by the local news at Chuckfest :-)

You guys are my bestest friends :-) I apologize for the crappy pics on the blog lately. My son, who is a senior this year, is taking photography, so my good camera is at school with him everyday... I have a child graduating high school!? WHAT THE WHAT!?!? I'll try to get a better shot of the quilt. The quilting looks amazing! I love the spiral lines around each block. So it's been three years since I started the podcast! stay tuned for a celebratory giveaway this week.

Hey guys! It's a long one this time. I guess I had a lot to say. I talked about hand applique, hand embroidery, quilt guild show and tell, a few binding tips.. Ya know.. the usual. CORRECTION: In this episode I talked about a musical act we saw on vacation.. I called them "The Fog" but they are actually "Fog and Bone" Sorry about that. Check them out on facebook Go Quilt Something! There were a couple at the guild meeting who thought I was wearing a wig... seriously? who would do that on purpose?  

I got the last Easy Street quilted.. though now I am feeling like I mistakenly said Celtic Solstice.. I did NOT make a Celtic Solstice. I'm making some half light/half dark w/ green diagonal postage stamp blocks. I am aiming for something similar to THIS but perhaps a bit smaller. Thank you to JENNY for emailing me about the corrections in the Hobo Quilts book, by Debra G Henniger, which I spoke about last week. I can't find anywhere online that has corrections posted, but there are some old reviews on amazon that mention someone was able to get them from the author. I think I can probably just figure them out myself by doing a little math. I am sure I will talk about it when/if I get around to making the blocks. Thanks, Jenny! and sorry I called you Janet. But, Jenny is a nickname for Janet, so perhaps I haven't offended you too deeply :-) Sorry for the lack of pictures this week.. and in the past weeks.. I PROMISE to get my sheet together.. :-) thanks for listening! Now, do what Larry said!

In this episode I talked about how I made my Summer postcard quilt. I will show a pic later this week when it has arrived at its new home. I talk a  lot about cleaning and organizing my sewing room (riveting story.. very exciting) And I found some more UFOs.. like this one, A Red, Red Rose. I haven't decided if I will do some FMQ in the different flower sections or not.. Any input? whatcha think? I think it looks great in this room!     Go Quilt Something! (and stay away from turkey bacon.. that's nasty)  

If you're unfamiliar with Schrödinger's Cat, or the principle therein, read THIS first and you'll understand why a quilt that hasn't been turned over yet, has, in theory,  both perfect and completely jacked up stitches :-) I got three quilt bindings done recently, and I think I may never do a hand binding again. Mr. Furly, Tea Time, and Fugly Fairies The rain hasn't let up, so I will have to post some pics when the yard is dry and I can get some good lighting. I've also quilted the monster string quilt, and I will have a pic when I get the binding done on that. I'm making slow progress on my blue and white Dear Jane quilt blocks. And this is what's making me crazy ..