Not enough hours in the day!

Wow, did I really neglect my poor blog for this long? It's crazy what long work days and a new puppy can do to you. Here's Belle demonstrating both at once!

But my blog isn't the only thing suffering. I don't have much to report on quilt progress: still working at the footballs. And that 'deadline' is looming on the horizon...

Hopefully I have some more progress to share soon. Have a great weekend!!

Hexagons

Sometimes, quilting makes me reflect on simpler times -- when things were done slowly, and by hand. My Mamaw (southern for 'Grandmother'!) has this old hexagon quilt that I had never thought much of. It was done in yellows, had some crazy patterns (pandas??), and wasn't the prettiest thing. I used to use it to lay out to tan: it was worn, needed some repair, and the quilting on it wasn't perfect. Then I asked her about it... That quilt was made by her mother and aunts, hand-pieced and quilting-bee'd together as a family. Just thinking about how long that quilt took to make, how much love went into it, and how much fun those ladies must have had sitting around a quilt frame really changed my perspective on that quilt. I wish I had a picture of it!

So I've decided to make my own -- completely hand-pieced, and it will be completely hand-quilted. I'm not giving myself any type of 'deadline' with this one. I'm just taking my sweet time, working on it here and there, and making sure that I'm enjoying every little bit of the process.

I'm using the leftover fabric from the blue Double Wedding Ring quilt that I made for the fiance's parents. Ideally, I'd like to give this one to my mother someday -- how cool would that be, to have two quilts of the same fabric given to our parents?

The pale yellow centers are a 'tribute' to my Mamaw's hexagon quilt -- it really reminds me of the color scheme.

Moleskines

I don't know why, but I've always loved Moleskines! They're my guilty pleasure... I have tons of them. Even a recipe-book Moleskine!

So of course, I do my quilting sketching in one. I'm a visual person; I need to sketch out and see what I'm doing and how it's going to look. It also helps with counting how many pieces I'll need.

And I've made some slow progress on the footballs...

Slow progress is still progress, though!

Vacation

So I'm on vacation this week -- my first ever as a real working-girl! But instead of going somewhere else, I'm just holed up at home enjoying the new pup and putting off everything that I need to do, of course. Motivation (quilting and otherwise) is a little hard to find when you have a little wagging ball of fur that needs training...

Today was the first dry, sunny day this week, so I dragged the pups out to the woods.

What kind of crazy person am I -- I work in the woods, then go to them on my time off? Well... I don't get to stare at waterfalls all day!

Now I just need to sit down and make myself get stuff done... Quilting programming to resume soon!

Tiny Plastic Babies

Every year for Mardi Gras, I make a King Cake! If you have no clue what I'm talking about, read up on it here.

Since I just moved to the west coast, I thought I'd treat some co-workers (many of whom have never heard of it!) to this tasty treat. Hence the large and small King Cakes... my poor fiance and I ate way too much of our little cake.

These take some time to make, but are definitely worth it! Happy Mardi Gras to you!

Precision and 'Football' Piecing

So I've been slowly pinning away at the brown and green DWR quilt, though not as fast as I'd like to. I did get all of the arches pieced and ironed, though!

You can see the two different 'directions' that the colors are going on the arches, so that the rings overlap and it has the depth I talked about in a prior DWR post. The next thing I did was cut out all of the center pieces for the footballs. I chose an off-white color, since it went better with the brown and green and won't show as much dirt due to the quilt testers...

Now here's where I have a quilting confession to make: I don't cut out templates or anything accounting for seam allowance. I just don't do it, even though I know it's a sewing and quilting no-no. I have to have exact lines! You can see on the cream footballs where I've traced and marked the center:

I then fold the arcs and cut a center mark to match up to the cream football's center mark.

It really makes it easier to match up the centers when pinning.

Being exact is very important with this pattern; if you're off the slightest, you're going to have bulges, believe me. Gotta love curved sewing!

The lines that I trace make it easy for me to see where exactly to sew, which is hard with a curved line like on these footballs. I basically use the pins to line me up:

Then it's all downhill from there!

And I'm always sure to back-track on everything, of course!

New quilt tester!

Let me introduce you to my newest quilt tester...

Belle! She'll be helping Beau with quality control from now on. :)