Quilt Vomit Ready to Go

Usually quilts grow on my as they get to the finished stage. Not always though. I'm seriously wishing I had used a different sashing strips and taken the time to replace the R that looks more like an A. It is done though, so it's too late for quilters remorse. I'm grabbing fabric now to put a back together and then I will decide whether to quilt it next or figure something out for my border dilemma on starlight. Maybe I'll throw them both on a shelf and grab out something entirely new. No, I'll be good and finish these before I move on again. We have swim team and volleyball camp in the morning. They overlap, so Kurt is going to help out with the morning drop off. He really is a keeper, even if he says my quilt gives him a headache.

How Did that Happen?

I was trying to finish off the border for Starlight Starbright in between steps for Crumb Cake. I remember cutting out foundation strips for the rainbow effect and carefully measuring them to fit between cornerstones of wonky squares. Admittedly, they've been sitting and waiting patiently for a while now, but how did they shrink?!? OK, so maybe they didn't shrink, but why do they not fit? Was I planning on piecing two of them together for each side? Did I plan on filling in the empty space with something else? What exactly was I thinking? Maybe if I search through my blog archives I'll find some clue as to what I had planned for these oddly sized fabric strips which I have methodically covered with rainbow colors. Or maybe I'm going to have to make up something creative.

Birthday Beaches and Borders

The kids made a birthday cake for me. It was custom designed by all three of them together. One half is a quilt, because I love to quilt, and the other is a heart, because I love my children. Very symbolic coming from the mind of a 7 year old.

Today being memorial day, the beach is a popular spot to be. The kids love to splash in the waves and dig in the sand. Living just 7 miles away, we don't feel the need to make a day out of it. They were out early and back in time for lunch.
I'm getting the borders put onto crumb cake now. Busy might be bit of an understatement for this quilt. I thought it need more contrast and so switched the cornerstones in the middle from pink to white. I think I have enough of the parrot fabric left from my last quilt which will go after a skinny orange border to contain the chaos a bit. It's just started raining, so I won't feel guilty about working on my quilt for a bit longer rather than doing something productive like yard work.

A Familiar Conversation

Says he, "What is this one for again?". Says me, "Really?" Says he, "OK, but what is it going to be used for?" Says me, "For being a quilt and using up scraps and practicing quilting." Says he, "OK, well, the blocks are so busy that the strips in between need to be very dark and solid so that the whole thing doesn't look like somebody threw up. Maybe burgundy or dark green or even black."
Although I was leaning toward white, I decided against it for the sashing simply because some of the letters hung off of the edge of the blocks and I was afraid they would blend too much. I looked for a subdued dark solid color but I don't really have such a thing in my stash. Well, maybe I do, but not enough of any one to make a whole quilt. Remembering how much I liked the I Spy with green sashing strips, I pulled this green out and looked for a dark purple to go with it. I couldn't find a dark purple I liked, but this hot pink caught my eye. OK, so it isn't dark or subtle, and it does look a little like somebody threw up, but hey, it's my quilt, it can look like quilt vomit if I want it to.

Design Decisions

I think words are driving my design ideas. It started with a simple plan to use up my leftovers and clear out the randomness in order to free up the space to work on something monochromatic. When working with leftovers, I find it easier to separate the crumbs (kinda square) from the strings (long and skinnyish). As I worked on sorting them, the names Crumb Cake and String Cheese started working their way through my mind. The crumbs came first, and as I worked through them, I quickly became bored with pure randomness, and in the way that an idle mind does, I started creating patterns out of chaos. The patterns turned into letters. Using Tonya's tutorial for free pieced letters as it exists in my head, the Crumb Cake quilt asked for a saying. Marie Antionette was haunting my mind from the long ago days of high school French and so I decided upon, "Let them eat crumb cake". There are only 6 letters done so far out of the 19 that are needed, but the general idea is starting to coagulate. The blocks are 7 inches with a 3 inch sashing strip between. I still need to decide on the color for that. DH Kurt thinks something dark to make the blocks blend better and I am liking the white to make the blocks pop out better. Maybe a comprimise with contrasting cornerstones? I'll let it simmer overnight and then think about it some more in the morning. My floor is a tangled mass of trimmings and treads as the basket of rejects, leftovers and afterthoughts turns into something. How happy is that?

We Got Slimed!!

We just returned from a family vacation to the Nickelodeon Hotel in Orlando. They have two big pools with water slides and lots of games and activities for the kids. We went two years ago to celebrate all of the kids summer birthdays and they had so much fun that we decided to go back again.

One of the things that they enjoyed most was the evening show called Slime Time Live. It is a game show that has two families competing in silly games and answering trivia questions. Anna was convinced that we should be the family on the stage and orchestrated the audition process. On the application she described our family as having odd hobbies such as ice skating in Florida and being the smallest football player ever. She didn't mention making quilts in Florida, but it would have fit right in. I guess it worked because we were lucky enough to be chosen for the show. The team had to consist of two adults and two children, so Sydney sat in the audience as our official photographer.
Ryan was in the first game, getting marshmallows out of a bowl of slime without using his hands. The second game was Anna putting on as many pairs of underwear as she could. Even though we lost all of the games, we answered the final trivia question correctly: "What was the name of the Lifeguard on Sponge Bob Square Pants?" It was Larry the lifeguard of course.


Our grand prize was the team captain getting slimed. Anna enjoyed every minute of it. I'm not quite sure what the slime was made out of, but they promised that it was completely edible and nontoxic.

Giveaway Winner

Using the highly scientific random number generator at random.org, I got number 5 for the winner of my 500th post giveaway. Counting down the list of comments, the prize goes to......drum-roll please........ Amanda at Amanda's Musings. I am a longtime reader of Amanda's blog and was even lucky enough to win her giveaway earlier. She does lovely work and has just gotten a fancy new sewing machine and embroidery module. So go visit her and tell her I said "hi". Amanda, if you could just let me know which of the quilt kits from Connecting Threads you would like to have, the choices are: Magenta Cosmos Strippy, Cosmos in Bloom, or Madder Storm at Sea. Also, if you could send me your snail mail address, I'll zip off to the post office when it opens again on Tuesday and send the parcel off to you. Thanks to everyone who left a comment.

Still Ending the Year

Today I spent some time sorting through the scrap basket. I tend to throw anything into a basket that is leftover or extra. I enjoy cutting strips and squares mindlessly from time to time, and so tend to pull out the pieces that are largish. What is left are the humblest crumbs that I'm sure most people would toss without a backward glance. I've pulled a few out to make crumb and string blocks, but the basket was overflowing and needed some more drastic attention. Working my way down the basket was like an archeological dig of quilts past. A bit of green parrots from the back of the I spy, still more pieces of whirly giggles, extra bits from the nursing home series, wow, how long ago was the Dresden plates quilt? I guess some of those have been fermenting for a while. A more user friendly organization was called for.
Having seen several spectrum quilts recently, I was inspired to sort my crumbs chromatically. How pretty do they look hanging out together like that? I've got some mixed crumbs still in the works, but as soon as those are finished off I'll try a few monochromatic blocks and see how it goes.

This evening was our end of the year meeting for Girl Scouts. We swam, ate some ice cream and played Just Dance on the Wii. I think that was my last end of the year celebration. Tomorrow swim team starts. I guess that means that summer is really and truly here at last.

Design Wall Monday

I was going to use the flying geese as a border for Mariposa. Instead I used a plain border and now I have all these extra blocks hanging out waiting to do something. Maybe some Spring place mats or a table runner?
Right now I'm off to do a little ironing and putting away. I'm going to try to be more diligent about taking care of scraps and leaders and enders after every quilt instead of letting them build up. I spent an entire weekend recently working through a huge basket full.
After that I am going to sew some crumbs and strings for while. I am in the mood for some nice mindless sewing. I have two names floating through my mind, so coming soon; crumb cake and string cheese.

Mariposa Done Done

There is done and there is done done. It took most of the afternoon, but Mariposa is all the way done with the last stitch just taken in the binding. I'm always amazed that the last step can take as much time as all of the previous steps combined. I'll get it packaged up so that I can take it in to school tomorrow. There are three days of post planning scheduled, but I'm just about done with what I need to do. I have one parent who wants to schedule a conference and I need to count my textbooks. That should just about do it. I might take the kids in with me in the morning and let them plant some seeds in the vegetable portion of the solar innovation garden.

This is Lizzie who shamelessly stole my spot the minute I got up from my binding stitching session. Then she looked at me with that innocent "who me?" look on her face.
I've gotten a ton of comments from the Online Quilt Festival, but I haven't had a chance to look through much or respond. I think I'll do that now that my must do list is taken care of. Then I can pick the project I want to work on next and even stay up until the wee hours to work on it if the muse strikes. Aahhhhh, summer!!!!!