Monkeys Again

I realize my latest Monkey Whack quilt has been sitting around waiting for some binding since May, but I have finally made progress on it!

In the last 12 hours it went from looking like this:

(which should look familiar if you've been watching my Progress updates for very long now)

to this:

Nice change, right?

The most obvious difference is that pop of red binding, but I also decided at the last moment that I really needed to do something more with the quilting. So, with no guides or measurements, I added in some diagonal lines (one of my favorite things to do) and wound up with some imperfect wonky diamonds crossing the quilt. I think it's a big improvement over the minimal boxes I had done before.

I think the binding looks pretty good against the top. Not a perfect match to the other reds, but close - and I think the little dots work well against the dots in the navy. So while it isn't perfect, I think it does a good job of tying the whole thing together.

It's not quite as perfect against the back material - which is a bit more pastel than the front - but again, it's not bad.

Which means I'm one wash and one dry away from this quilt being considered one at last! I'm thrilled about that; this one spent way too much time sitting around waiting for inspiration to hit. Can't wait to see how it looks after a wash and dry!

Progress

Whoops! This was supposed to get shared on Friday while I was out of town. Apparently it didn't happen... So, let's pretend it did. Especially since I have nothing new to report... 

Monkey Blocks

Yet to Do: quilt, buy/find fabric for binding, make binding, bind, wash

Happy Go Lucky Quilt

Yet to Do: square up, buy fabric and make binding, bind, wash

Chocolate Covered Cherry / Disappearing 9 patch on point

Yet to do: Add border/complete top, make back, baste, quilt, bind, wash

Semi-Sampler (small) Quilt-to-be?

Progress: I'm up to 14 blocks - and I'm out of all the fabrics I've used thus far (except scraps). 

Pansy Patch Project

No recent progress.
Yet to Do: finish piecing tops together, make back, baste, quilt, bind

Waiting to Start:

• This thing... 

More Scenes from My Weekend...

Yet another weekend spent away from home, traveling, seeing family, and then working. Friday after work we drove out to a family reunion - one of four my family has every year. 

Although there's a bit of a generation gap with everyone either at least 15 years older than us, or at least 20 years younger than us, it was still fun to get a chance to see people. Fun, for the most part, but certainly not helping me get anything else done.

And I learned last night that my next two weekends are also booked with projects and events that will keep me busy outside the house.

So, I'm not getting much sewing done around here, or much cooking, or (to be perfectly honest) not much of anything else either. But, all this time on the road or waiting at distant locations is really adding several more books than average to my read (past tense) list, and a couple audio books to the listened list.

Speaking of keeping busy outside the house, I'd better start getting ready to leave again. Looks like today is going to be a busy one too.

Not Much Yet...

It doesn't look like much yet, but this is one of the reasons it's been so quiet around here. This is take two of four (plus) nights of limited free time spent trying to figure out the math for a block I want to make - and yes, I imagine there does have to be a faster and easier way to do it. When I started the process, I thought this would be straight forward and something I could easily sketch out longhand. Not so. It was much more complicated than I thought. I've moved away from paper and on to Excel spreadsheets or formulas.

I'm on attempt number three of the math looking right enough to try making a test block:

And this time it turns out I'm finally right!

There's more to it eventually, but it looks like the math for the problematic part has finally come together to work in my favor - which means it's almost time to start looking at cutting up the fabric I'm actually going to use (instead of using the scraps of fabrics I've been tempted to rehome).

I'm not ready to start on this in earnest yet. Not only do I need to finish this square to make sure there are no more surprises, I also want to get a few more of the in progress items crossed off before I really start on this one. That said, as frustrating as it has been to be doing this kind of math, at least it was something I could work on when my only down time in the day was far away from my sewing machine and supplies.

I'm afraid I'm letting this one out of the bag a little earlier than I should, but it's really the only thing I have lined up to share yet. So, more on this one later, but not for a few weeks.

Quick Scenes from My Weekend

We ran off this weekend to attend a birthday party...

Is that the best cake ever or what? My sister in law made it - and not only was it adorable, it was delicious. I probably had too much of it... 

Unfortunately, we could only stay there for about 48 hours. So after eating too much cake, and indulging in a lot of Mountain Dew, we left last night and drove through the night to get back in time for work. Turns out, we are too old for staying up that many hours at a time! Next time I will be smart enough to take off work and do a three day weekend so I'm not up for 23 hours at a time. 

So... you know the drill - it's going to be a little quiet around here while I try to get my head straightened out. I'll be taking lots of naps instead of sewing. But hopefully in the next week or so I'll have some new things to get on here. 

Hope all of you are getting some sleep! I'm headed back to bed in the hopes that tomorrow I'll be a more functioning person.

Pinterest Challenge: Fails

Keeping it real around here. I am not always successful at making Pinterest Challenges. Not even when I follow the directions. Rather than take up a whole post on each of these failures, I thought I'd lump some of them together.

Pumpkin Cheesecake Brownie Pie.

The original photo looks so good. My version? Not so much.

This is the before I tried to cut it but after I let it cool for 1 hour photo. I'll spare you the after being cut photo. Pudding, and not in a good way.

What went wrong? It didn't bake enough. I knew the brownie part wasn't done, but I thought it would continue to bake even after I put the cheesecake layer on top. And okay, it probably did, but it wasn't enough. I'm not certain if this is another illustration of my oven not baking evenly, or if I should simply have added some cook time for each layer.

Would I try it again? Kind of. I figured that much time in the oven probably meant I wouldn't get sick from eating it, so I tried a slice couple spoon fulls. The flavors were good - but quite rich. I think a slice would have been overwhelming. So, if I try it again, I will swap out the pie plate for a square cake pan and hope that I can cut it into small bars instead of slices. And that I can cut it at all.

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This would have been a Pinterest Challenge, if the delicious looking potatoes I pinned had led anywhere. Instead of a recipe, I got tips on how to lose weight. Searching for the image led me to my own pin. Searching for the source of the watermark led me to error messages.

So, instead I found a different recipe HERE at Epicurious.com for roasted potatoes with garlic, lemon, oregano, and chicken stock. It wasn't quite what I was looking for, but I had all the ingredients and figured I'd give it a go.

And the potatoes have now been in the oven thirty minutes more than called for - and still aren't done. They smell amazing... but I'm beginning to question if potatoes cook differently at different altitudes? It's not my oven, since the chicken is done (and eaten).

Later: Two hours of bake time and I gave up. And no, the potatoes never got done, never got fluffy, never even approached soft.

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I'm not going to link anything for this one, but I assure you I only tried it because Pinterest was making it look so good. 

One grapefruit, about to be broiled, half with brown sugar, half without. 

Yeah, that was more of a mess than it was worth. I will continue eating them my way (like an orange) and leave the fancy bits to other people... 

Happily Quilted

It took me three short nights of quilting, but I think I've finally got Happy Go Lucky quilted the way I imagined.

Inspired by the beautiful quilting on this Herringbone Linen Quilt by Latifah Saafir, I stitched across my straight lines, changing the angle at each straight line. I ran these stitches in sets of two or three across the length of the quilt - with absolutely no pattern or guide for how far apart they should be or how many I should do.

My biggest concern had been how such a straight line approach to the quilting would look against the very floral backing material, but I think it worked out well.

The straight lines alone didn't work - but somehow adding those angled lines changed it up enough that (to me) the quilting no longer clashes with the fabric pattern. I'm very relieved - I spent the first session of quilting fearing that I would flip it over only to face the news that I would have to rip it out and come up with another plan!

I rushed outside with the camera the minute I finished - just in time to grab a few photos before the sun went down. Oh, I'm so thankful for these longer, summer days!

I'm quite smitten with it - even though yes, the quilting took longer than I'd hoped (about 5 hours for a baby-size quilt) and yes, it was a bit more intensive than what I usually go for. For the first time, I missed my old Singer, which could stop needle down or up depending on when I released the pedal. Working with my Janome, which always stops needle up, meant that I had to stop before I reached the line, then approach by hand (either cranking or using one of the buttons) until I hit the line, stop needle down, adjust the quilt, then I was free to use the pedal for almost two inches before beginning the slow approach again. There's got to be a better way to do that - but I don't know how with my current machine. I love the resulting look, but unless I find a faster way to do it, it simply isn't practical for anything larger than this little one.

I had hoped to have enough of the backing material leftover to make the binding from it, but I wasn't quite so lucky in that aspect. So, after a trim down, I expect Happy Go Lucky will be joining the Monkeys in the 'wait until I buy more material' stack. And this one could be even trickier - unlike the Monkeys (which just needs the right shade of red), I have absolutely no idea what kind of final touch I should be looking for to complete this one. Looking at things might change my opinion, but I think neither solid nor stripe... but I'm also thinking floral would be over doing it. What's left?! Guess I've got some shopping ahead of me next time I have a few minutes...

Slow Progress

I think I'm getting faster at basting. Maybe even a little better. It nearly took more time to clear out the living room than to actually pin this little quilt together! Even better, I only had to wait a week to find the time to start working on quilting. Thanks to staying up way later than I should have - and the distraction of a new-to-me movie - I managed to make a good start:

I rushed out in the morning - before work - to get a photo of my progress, but the results were less than ideal.

So I tried again the next night.

So far I've stitched more or less straight lines. I was aiming for a stitch in the ditch kind of approach, but for the vast majority of the lines my aim was a bit off. In a happy accident, I think those lines actually look a bit better - rather than the few where I succeeded and the stitching nearly disappears!

There's still a lot more stitching to go - and I have a feeling it's going to take me several nights to accomplish my goal. I'm not looking forward to trying to squeeze this little quilt through the machine to do what I want, but it's so going to be worth it. I can't wait - let's just hope it goes more quickly than I fear!

Smothered Yum

Smothered burritos are quickly becoming a house favorite around here...

chicken, spinach, black bean smothered burrito

This is the fifth or sixth time I've made smothered burritos since trying them earlier this spring, and at least the third different variation I've tried. And this coming from a gal who always orders 'no salsa' when we go out!

This weekend we tried adding sweet potato to the burrito filling. Best decision ever. I will be doing that again as often as possible.

I am not anti salsa. Anyone who has ever seen me with a bowl of salsa and chips knows better than that. I just always thought I didn't like soggy burritos. Now, making them myself, I'm not sure why I don't like them in restaurants, because I really like them at home! 



I'm off to try to do something productive so I have something more to share next week... Then again, I might just crawl into bed with one of the three books I'm working on reading right now. Course, I'll be asleep before I open the book, so maybe not that either. Happy weekend! 

Quilt Top - Now with Extra Chocolate!

I guess the title gives away the 'winner' of the fabric auditions...

I know the lighting isn't ideal. I was cramming this update into the hours I had free in the evening, but I assure you, it looks delicious.

I'm so glad I went with the brown. It's a nice break from the red and pink - and it really makes some of the brown pieces pop.

I've got to really start thinking about what kind of back I'm going to make now - but I got distracted by binding thoughts. It would mean another purchase (which was not supposed to be the point of this quilt), but I'm thinking aqua. It'd help tie in the pieces of blue/aqua in the top, and some of the sprinkles in the frosting print are a blue/aqua. Also, since I think of the top as a cupcake, a blue/aqua cupcake liner seems like the perfect finishing touch - at least to me!

If not a blue/aqua, I think I've got to go back the reds and pinks.

Fabric Auditions Take Two!

After being more or less disappointed by the possible edging fabric auditions from my stash, I gave in and went on a bit of a shopping spree. I wound up with two new options to try next to the quilt top against my top runner from the stash.

There's pink cupcakes with cherries...

Or chocolate frosting with sprinkles...

Or the tea and coffee stash leader...

I'm leaning towards either the chocolate frosting (brown) or the tea and coffee (white) as bit of a break from the intensity of the pinks and reds. But... I don't know which I like better... If I had to choose right now, I think I'd go with the chocolate, but I'm just not certain enough to start cutting today.

If I only had the option of using the pink cupcake print, I wouldn't be upset. It does look like it really belongs with the top, but since I have two options that I like better I think it could work brilliantly on the back. Speaking of backs, I'm off to scour the internet for some ideas for backs that I like and that I can achieve. So far I feel like I struggle to make backs I like, but I am going to overcome this.

Momo Mini Quilt

Whoops - I actually made this a couple months ago and never got around to sharing it. Okay, it's not super exciting, but since I hung it up as part of this month's decorations, I figured it deserved a little attention here as well.

Inspiration: Cat's Cradle quilt pattern

Using the quilt top cats as inspiration, I made one of my own - just eyeballing pieces until they came together how I wanted. I knew I wanted mine to be a little less rectangular, coming in between the shoulders and the cheeks - which was an easy adaptation to make.

My attempt at front legs could still use some improvement - I think I should have gone more in the direction of my inspiration with something a bit more organic. Fortunately, the lines show up with less intensity without flash photography or photo editing. I still love the overall shape/size/design of the cat - and the added button on the collar is just too cute!

It came together quickly - and I imagine with a pattern it would be even faster - but I don't know that it's something I could see myself making several of for a quilt top. Then again, some day I'm going to have to do one with repeating blocks... Probably soon!

I attached the button only with a spare basting pin (bent safety pin) just in case I ever need to wash this thing or something. This was also made from the very last few scraps of grey flannel. While this was a remnant bin pick up from somewhere, it's been some of my favorite fabric so far this year. I'm usually not so good at picking up neutrals (so guilty of jumping for the cute character type prints and skipping the foundational neutral or single color pieces), but this one has been absolutely perfect. I'm going to have to look for some kind of replacement. 

Fabric Auditioning

While the internet was down and the house was too hot for anything productive, I pulled the pink/red quilt top, the camera, and any piece of fabric I thought might possibly work into the bedroom for some serious auditioning.

I tried a lot of fabric. Pinks, reds, blues, yellows, browns, aqua, dots, stripes, animals, characters, gingham...

I started out with the ones I had the highest hopes for:

... the dots look fairly orange next to the reds already in the quilt...

... the colors actually work fairly well, but I'm not sure the prints go together...

... I was saving this one for the back. Actually, it doesn't look so bad in the photo, though I didn't think it worked quite so well in person. Hmm... I may have to try this pairing again under different lighting.

Then I got a bit more desperate and tried a lot of weird things. Most of which did not work, but some of them... well... they were closer than I expected...

... Not quite right, but I do like the almost coordination with the red, green, and blue cupcake liner like stripes in the top already...

...Color-wise, I actually really like the above pairing. But - I don't like the prints together. It just clashes for me...

...I thought I'd try something relatively toned down, but it seems too toned down to me. Although again, this set looks better in the photo than I recall from real life. Maybe I should check it again too...

...I even got a little desperate and pulled a couple owl prints from hiding (as my husband loves them and wants me to horde them for the possible future)... The blue/aqua is too bright, and the types of owls clash, but it's close...

This is not my idea of fun. Also, I am not very good at it. There are people who are, and I am utterly jealous.

In increasing desperation, I tried a few more options, and came away with what I think are the two best options thus far:

I had completely forgotten about this print - which I had originally intended to use for kitchen curtains before deciding they were a little too delicate for our kitchen. I actually like it here, but I wonder if it would make a better back - even though I generally shy away from using much white in a back. It does introduce purple, which hasn't really been used in the top yet but still feels like it belongs, as well as using enough red, pink, and yellow to feel like it coordinates.

This is my next favorite, I think. But again, I feel like the colors are working together (it's hard to tell here, but the background is actually brown) while the prints aren't quite so complimentary. I liked it better in person than I do looking at this photo now. Crud.

My gut feeling after over an hour of looking at fabrics from my stash? I've got a couple I could look at again, but nothing that feels right. Input from others thus far was to use one of the not-red, not-pink colors for the border, but unless it's a perfect match (which I do not have), I'm not feeling it. I really would like to see it with a red/pink print that's equally intense, or something in the perfect shade of brown. So I guess I'll be taking this little top in progress to the fabric store for some speed dating... At least if all else fails, I've got a couple things here that I can look at again.

But yes, this has really driven home the point that I have a lot of fabric I don't know what to do with. And some of it is really ugly. Also, that I need to try building a quilt from scratch without the help of a premade package to keep pushing me to develop a better eye for what goes together. 

July Goals

July Goals

Read 5+ Books
Bind Monkey Whack
Find and work on Pansy Patch
Try a new-to-me Recipe (Pinterest or otherwise)
Family trips: birthday party trip, family reunion trip,
Get together with friends - at least one weekend (in addition to the people we'll see at the family trips)
Shopping for new work clothes
Clean and organize the office
Practice piano and clarinet twice a week (which isn't nearly enough, but I'm trying to work up to more)
Go for a bike ride
Give the roses some attention

June Wrap Up

Ugh. This month did not go particularly well in terms of meeting my goals. Work - and work-related exhaustion - absolutely took over my month. I'm not going to beat myself up over the way this month went; I did what I had to, and it's a clean slate to try again and be more successful in the future. 

Ready 5+ Books

• "The Summer Prince" Alaya Dawn Johnson
• "Redoubt" Mercedes Lackey
• "Steadfast" Mercedes Lackey
• "The Incredible Charlotte Sycamore" Kate Maddison
• "Snow White, Blood Red" Ed. Ellen Datlow & Terri Windling
• "Instant Mom" Nia Vardalos 
• "If You Find Me" Emily Murdoch

Make 1-2 "Jungle Blocks" coordinating bibs (for future baby shower gifts)
Make Progress on Pansy Patch
Anniversary Trip/Ren. Fest.
Social outing with friends/family
Meatless dinners once a week (I'm thinking Monday, but we'll just have to see) - Whoops! I completely forgot this was even a hope. Actually, I won't embarass myself by revealing how few meals we ate at home this month. There were far too many days when none of us had the energy to do more than fall over at the end of the day. This is still something I want to try, but I'll put it aside until work slows down a little. For now, I'm going to try to concentrate on coming up with more 'no energy needed' meals so we're not so tempted to go out all the time. 
Drink at least one water bottle each day - Nope. But I've been making a more conscious effort to remember to drink before I'm too thirsty and hot. That's the hardest part - to think about hydration prior to wanting to drink. But, progress was made and most days were decent on the water drinking front (better than decent if I get to count unsweetened tea as 'water'). 
Serious progress on my newest projects*
Mail the Welcome Baby Packages the week of the birth of the babies - All sent, and all received
Go to bed before midnight every night - Well, I think I made it by 12:30 every night but one. I did stay up until 1:30 one night - after being up for hours in the night the previous two nights thanks to cat problems (why was he meowing? No idea, because he fell asleep in my lap as soon as I sat on the sofa) and bad work-related dreams (after hours of bad dreams, I got up and spent over two hours working on work-things). Turns out, staying up later is way easier than sleeping for a couple hours then being up for a couple, then trying to get back to sleep again! Still, I haven't been doing anything fun irresponsible like staying up until 2:30 or 3 recently (and I think I haven't stayed up until 5 or 6 since I got married). So, not a success, but I have been trying. 






*More about that later**
** Um, except I now no longer remember which ones are my newest projects! Maybe I was referring to the two quilts that took up most of my spare time this month? If not... I honestly have no idea...