I guess I still like writing after all…

Back in April, Jerimi over at My Antidepressant Life wrote about her pen-pal through the Letter Writer’s Alliance.  First off, Jerimi has a great blog if you’re looking for something to read.  Secondly, letter writing?  An entire group of folks devoted to writing letters and absolutely yummy paper related items?

I joined right away even though I had a backlog of thank you cards waiting to go out and am spotty at best when it comes to sending out holiday cards be they for anniversaries, birthdays, or other appropriate occasions.  In my defense, cards are freaking expensive for what you get and signing a card really never feels like “enough.”

But….letters?  I love letters.  Even better?  While writing my very first penpal letter, I discovered that I still like writing after all.  Just not blogging.

So.

Here’s the deal, if you’re a regular here and you’d still like to keep in touch, I’d love to hear from you.  Want a handwritten letter in return?  Drop me an email with your snail mail address (maplecanopy [at] gmail [dot] com) and I’ll send one your way!  :0)

Finished Since Last Time…

We’ve finished three books in the last two weeks and are very close to finishing a fourth. Books #8, 9, and 10 were “Stuart Little” by EB White, “Bartleby of the Mighty Mississippi” by Phyllis Shalan,t and “A Series of Unfortunate Events: The Bad Beginning” by Lemony Snicket. Book #10 is E.L. Konigsburg’s “From the Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler” which has been equally as delicious to read as #s 9 and 10.

From there, we’ll be on to #12, “The Son of Neptune” by Rick Riordan.

Another thing that I have settled on declaring finished lately is this here blog. I’m not done writing (seeing as writing is a lifelong process), but my writing ambitions are definitely finished. My apologies to those who have commented within the last month or so. I really did mean to get back to you, but the reality is that I won’t. I do feel the tiniest bit sorry about that. Only the tiniest bit, though. Much as I meant to get back to writing here, as time went on I found that what seemed so urgent or necessary before didn’t any longer.

The short version? I still have plenty to say, but I have no desire to say it here.

So, dear reader, my deepest appreciation to all of you for reading along with me. You are certainly welcome to continue, but know that I’m going to be shifting focus and what will follow in this space will primarily be a personal record of next year’s homeschooling. In other words, less blog, more record keeping. Read alouds, units I have created myself, resource lists, etc.

I won’t begrudge you if a litany of lists and records does not thrill you. :0) You have my permission to go therefore and read someone else.

Finished Last Week

“Shattered” – My own “design” (process and history here)

Quilting by Cindy @ In A Stitch Quilting

In Which I Stop Reading Big Name Quilting Blogs

So, certain persons online host contests. Do this, follow that, comment, make, and otherwise jump through hoops for this chance and that chance. Let’s be honest, most of them have sponsorships of some sort that provide the prizes. At least that’s the case for the big name bloggers. You can bet your rotary cutter that they aren’t out any money for the giveaway (or a great portion of the fabric they use to make their quilts). They’re selling something just like Target, WalMart, and Kraft. It’s every bit a business, except instead of selling a product or service, they are selling themselves. The blogger is the brand.

I find it just the tiny bit ironic then, when the folks selling their brand and hosting contests, declare some grand community purpose or some other such nonsense. As if somehow contests and giveaways aren’t that important. Chastise is probably the better word for it, and yes big blogger, I am aware that your comment was directed at me. Sometimes reading your blog or participating in your contest (and driving traffic to your blog) is just a means to an end. And really, can’t we be honest, since this is your business, isn’t that really the point? And, no I didn’t let your comment through on the original post because it seemed to me more the quilty equivalent of “well, bless your heart.”

I don’t know about you, dear reader, but when I enter a contest I kind of want to win otherwise I wouldn’t enter. I guess in this case I did sort of win. Sadly it was insight rather than fabric which would have been nice since we don’t all have access to the same fountain of free stuff (like sewing machines and fabric).

And that, big blogger, is the point at which I stopped reading big name quilting blogs just as sure as I stopped reading the pioneer gal. That sort of “community” isn’t for me. Too bad it cost me money to find out.

Shelburne Falling Star

A few weeks ago I saw an announcement on Stitched in Color for a Shelburne Falls contest. I wasn’t going to participate, but then, while shopping for fabric to finish the picnic blanket, a couple of half yards of fabric found their way into my basket.

Buying fabric? Easy.

Figuring out what to make with the fabric? That’s an entirely different puzzle altogether. My mom asked me how I came up with the idea. Honestly? I have no idea. I read quite a few blogs (by which I mean I skim through them while focusing on the ones that most catch my eye) so it’s more than likely that someone made something with stars. From there it’s a Google image search for quilted stars, barn stars, free stars, paper pieced stars. I looked at patterns (free, Etsy, Craftsy), but none of them really seemed like the thing.

Carol Doak’s “50 Fabulous Paper-Pieced Stars” made its way home from the library, mostly for the Colorado star, but when it arrived I fell in love with her Wisconsin star. Heh, I live in Wisconsin, is that too kitschy?

A week ago today we had our local quilt guild’s sew day and seeing as the husband was off, it seemed like the perfect opportunity to work on this quilt. While brushing my teeth it dawned on me – stars…falling stars….Shelburne Falls….Shelburne Falling Star. This, dear reader, is how inspiration is born.

I could have done the traditional thing. Four stars matched up with a neat little square of HSTs in the middle. Yeah. I never follow a recipe as written and likely couldn’t even if I tried, why would I follow a pattern as written?

One week, two Shelburne Falls fabrics, four Kona solids, a full Saturday, some Diet Coke, just about the entire third season of NCIS, and countless hours later my kitchen is a mess, the children have had pizza for dinner more than once. Oh, and the quilt is finished.

It’s perfect, yes? I can’t say that it’s exactly how I thought it would turn out because to be honest my vision before beginning was fuzzy. I love the way things evolve. Mistakes become focal points. Pieces are shuffled. While I enjoy the finished project, I think I prefer the process a great deal more than the finishing. Wrestling this quilt through my domestic machine was no picnic not to mention how I feel about hand stitching binding, but there is a certain satisfaction with having arrived even if it’s a little bittersweet.

Speaking of binding…I will now bind all of my quilts in stripes. I just love the way the stripes look marching all in a row down the edge of the quilt. Perfect.

I’m off to link up with Stitched in Color. Fingers crossed, dear reader. We’ll know on Monday (I think) whether or not I made it to the next round.

Sprolling – “You will be incompetent.”

The most recent spam-trolling (sprolling) comment:

This can be a set of words, not an essay. you will be incompetent

Gosh, how illuminating.

WIP Wednesday – A Little of This and a Little of That

But mostly this:

I added in another Dear Stella fabric to finish out the piecing, opting for larger pieces on the inside of the quilt rather than putting borders on it – mostly because borders always give me trouble. The top ended up finishing out at 64 1/2″ square (just shy of my target 65″ square).

Now all I have to do is piece the back, cut the batting to size, and get it basted. I’m pondering whether or not I’ll do the quilting on this one. When they’re larger than a wall hanging or table runner I usually send them out to my quilter (also known as my mom). I did the same with Shattered, which is quite a bit smaller than this one. My only excuse being that I was thinking of straight line quilting which I think will work well with the top and that’s something I like to think I can handle.

I feel like I should mention a disclaimer here because if you read here long enough you’re probably thinking that Shattered been out for a long time, but we’re on a “I’m not in a hurry” understanding. She’s just waiting on my say so and I’m thinking I like the process a great deal more than the finishing. Not so coincidentally, it helps me avoid putting the binding on which is precisely what I will continue to do once it comes back. I hate doing the binding.

Well, mostly I hate hand stitching. It makes my hands cramp up all funny. On the other hand, I don’t like the way binding looks when folks machine stitch it on.

So.

There you go.

Anyway…

Also Finished This Week:

• Sunbonnet Sue wall hanging
• Quilt guild name tag

Quick Finishes (or the “finish it already!!” group):

• Bailey Island Hobo from Aunties Two Patterns – needs handles – drapery grommets?

Waiting:

• Shattered – needs quilting and binding
• fleece quilt (pictured here) – need to finish sewing nine patch blocks, need to finish sewing together rows and then needs some sort of binding to help keep it square-ish – but mostly waiting on inspiration.

In Progress:

• The beach blanket from “Handmade Home” by Amanda Blake Soule
• Seeing Squares (small) from Empty Bobbin
• Batik Squares quilt (my own design)

The Great Big Wish/To Do List:

From “Sewing in No Time” by Emma Hardy:

• fireplace screen
• drawstring toy bags
• fabric covered storage box
• floor pillows
• floral pillow with ties

From “Quilt Revival” by Nancy Mahoney:

• 30′s Shadow Star

From “Oliver+S Little Things to Sew by Liesl Gibson:

• tutu (x2)
• reversible bucket hat (x3)

From Oliver+S:

• Lazy Days Skirts (x2) – with my girls you can never have enough skirts
• Popover Sundress (x2) plus doll dress (x2)
• A Day in the Park Backpack Tote (?)
• Have it All Wallet
• Tea Party Dress (x2)?
• Blouse + Pleated Skirt (x2)?

From “Little Stitches” by Aneela Hoey:

• Empire State Building Needle Case
• Rain, Rain Go Away Hanging Hoop

From “Liberty Book of Home Sewing” by Liberty of London:

• Sugar Bag Doorstop
• Toiletry Bag
• Bean Bag
• Keepsake Board
• Lampshade

I’m linking up with Lee @ Freshly Pieced!

Oh, Herbert!

WIP Wednesday – Long Time Coming

If the pile of trimmings on my cutting board are any indication, Herbert and I have been making much needed progress on my WIP list. Yes, it has been since January that I wrote a WIP Wednesday post and yes, I did spend most of February doing nothing. Well, not nothing, but certainly very little sewing. I tried to get things going with a rather easy sort of project. It was meant to be a quick finish so that I could get back into sewing after having struggled a bit with more precise piecing for my version of Empty Bobbin’s “Seeing Squares.” In my mind I wanted something like Amanda Blake Soule’s beach blanket from “Handmade Home,” but I didn’t have the yardage necessary for something exactly like it. Time to improvise, yes?

Famous last words.

I ended up with something like this. If you read the “Design Friday” post on this you’ll remember how I ended up here and where I thought I’d be headed. Simple borders on the top and bottom. Simple. Except it wasn’t. I had wings. The seams were straight on the inside and every single one of my attempts to “fix” it without taking it apart only made things worse. The damn problem kept reoccurring. Tears, dear reader, lots of tears. My brave husband even tried to help me sort it out.

“House and Country” broke me. I wanted to ship it out to someone’s house in the country and bury it in the pasture. I put it away for a day at which point I decided that the issue was something my rotary cutter could fix (and it would be faster than the seam ripper). Break me? I’ll break you down instead “simple” quilt.

I cut the fabric up into the largest squares I could get from each portion of the quilt and re-pieced. Only I was still having difficulties with finished block sizes. My cutting? My sewing? Both? After having my far more talented mother double-check my block sizes we determined that it was more than likely the seam allowances. More seam ripping. More sewing and piecing. New sewing machine. A living room floor layout to see what the next step would be. More fabric.

New iron. The nicely pressed big blocks are hanging up on my design wall now waiting for the new fabric and more piecing so that I can finish the top of this “easy” quilt. Dear reader, never declare a project to be “easy” before beginning. Bad idea.

Sunbonnet Sue still sits patiently on the back of the glider in my studio waiting for the day that I feel like finishing her. On the other hand, at least the binding is most of the way finished. I just need to finish the hand stitching. I predict she’ll be finished in time for Yule this year.

If you remember this slightly cryptic post, then you’ve seen at least a portion of this quilt. I’m using Art Gallery Blenders and Kona solids in my rainbow-tastic version of Empty Bobbin’s “Seeing Squares.” So far. So good, but I still have a long way to go.

This pile of strips is being pieced using Rayna Gillman’s book “Create Your Own Free-Form Quilts.” I’ve been using the leftovers from the Batik Squares quilt I gave to my mom plus another fat quarter I picked up at JoAnns a few weeks ago.

I’m taking the strips, sewing them together, and then cutting and piecing them together in what will one day be my very own Batik Squares quilt. I’m trying to decide if I will stick to the same form as the last Batik Squares I made, or if I will follow Gillman’s directions in the book more closely.

Quick Finishes (or the “finish it already!!” group):

• Sunbonnet Sue wall hanging – finish sewing on the binding
• Bailey Island Hobo from Aunties Two Patterns – needs handles – drapery grommets?

Waiting:

• Shattered – needs quilting and binding
• fleece quilt (pictured here) – need to finish sewing nine patch blocks, need to finish sewing together rows and then needs some sort of binding to help keep it square-ish – but mostly waiting on inspiration.
• The beach blanket from “Handmade Home” by Amanda Blake Soule – waiting on fabric to finish the top

In Progress:

• Seeing Squares (small) from Empty Bobbin
• Batik Squares quilt (my own design)
• My quilt guild name tag – need to finish sewing on the binding

The Great Big Wish/To Do List:

From “Sewing in No Time” by Emma Hardy:

• fireplace screen
• drawstring toy bags
• fabric covered storage box
• floor pillows
• floral pillow with ties

From “Quilt Revival” by Nancy Mahoney:

• 30′s Shadow Star

From “Oliver+S Little Things to Sew by Liesl Gibson:

• tutu (x2)
• reversible bucket hat (x3)

From Oliver+S:

• Lazy Days Skirts (x3 or more) – with my girls you can never have enough skirts
• Popover Sundress (x2) plus doll dress (x2)
• A Day in the Park Backpack Tote (?)
• Have it All Wallet
• Tea Party Dress (x2)?
• Blouse + Pleated Skirt (x2)?

From “Little Stitches” by Aneela Hoey:

• Empire State Building Needle Case
• Rain, Rain Go Away Hanging Hoop

From “Liberty Book of Home Sewing” by Liberty of London:

• Sugar Bag Doorstop
• Toiletry Bag
• Bean Bag
• Keepsake Board
• Lampshade

I haven’t done this in a loooong time, but today I’m linking up with Lee @ Freshly Pieced!