WiP Wednesday - Long Shot

I'm linking up with WiP Wednesday over at Freshly Pieced.

I'm still chugging along on these spider web blocks, but I made the mistake of counting the other day and I'm starting to think that finishing in time for the challenge deadline - November 4 - is a real long shot.   Quite frankly, at the rate I've been sewing lately, I'll be lucky to finish this quarter.

I hate showing you these, because the pictures have got to be running together and all looking the same by now.  I promise, these are four new pieces.  I've made twenty-six of these, which sounds good until you realize they only equal six and a half 11" blocks.  Just seventy-four to go!  Wheee!

You might remember that I made the quilt for our bed out of fabrics from a nickel block swap.  I needed 3 1/2" squares, so I spent a LOT of time trimming them all down.  For some insane reason, I felt the need to save all of those 1 1/2" x 5" or 1 1/2" x 3 1/2" strips in this Ziploc bag for the last five or six years.  And that was before I even met Pam.

I finally found them a home.  As I work on these spider web segments two at a time, I add another strip to the chain when I sew the last string and am ready to trim up the triangles.  I figure I'll use them as a border around the quilt.

I have gotten behind on my podcasts, and string piecing is mindless enough that any chunk of time is perfect for listening and stitching for as long as I've got.

Right now, mindless is about all I can muster when it comes to quilting.

What's in progress at your place?



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20 Years Ago Today

Twenty years ago today I drove home from my best friend's wedding, alone because my now-husband couldn't get off work.  Going to a wedding alone is on my top ten most depressing ways to spend a weekend.

I immediately went to his house to tell him about the beautiful ceremony and reception, about how our mutual friends were doing, and how much I had missed him during all the slow songs.  He doesn't fast dance with anyone - except, as it turns out, Gracie at the Father-Daughter Dance.  But that was light years away in July of 1991. 

We sat on his couch, channel surfing and talking about Tallahassee, where we met and fell in love.  I think wrestling was on when he suddenly turned to me and said, "I wanted this to be more romantic, but I can't wait.  Will you marry me?"

It was a jolt, because our relationship had been tumultuous.  We were young and dramatic and everything was a big deal.  We thought we had been through a lot by then, which I embarrassed myself with when I chose "Here We Are" by Alabama for our wedding video.  "Now we've made it through the hardest part."  Please.

Of course I said yes.  Of course I did.  I couldn't imagine spending my life with anyone else.  And of course we had not even touched the tip of the iceberg when it came to drama.  That was one fire, three miscarriages, a gall bladder attack, viral meningitis, three houses, a business' grand opening and sad closing, three c-sections, pneumonia at Disney World, and two Father-Daughter Dances ago.  With so much more in between. 

"Baby, you and I could write a book about love!"

Maybe it was just a premonition.  Maybe it's the only thing that makes sense.  I mean, how long can you really live with another person without any drama?  We've had a lot less than some people.

"We shared it all, you and I.  

Still together after all this time."

One thing that has gotten us through is the laughter.  No matter how bad my day goes, he still makes me laugh.  I can close my eyes and remember the day when the Bear was about six weeks old with true colic.  He cried incessantly.  Our oldest was 22 months and at that stage when he wanted to be picked up and held, and he wanted to know when that baby was going to go back to the hospital.  I had a gotten a staph infection after my c-section and was under strict orders not to lift him, or anything heavier than a gallon of milk.  At one point all three of us were sitting in the middle of the kitchen floor crying as I tried to balance them both on my tender lap and console the boys and myself.  Suddenly my husband walked in, earlier than normal.  He took one look at us and said, "I just dropped by to tell you I have to work late."  

I laughed.  I laughed so hard that my big boy started laughing, and the Bear didn't laugh but he might have stopped crying for a minute.  The tension was broken, and I knew I was going to make it.  To this day, when I'm not sure how much I can take, it still works.  No matter how dark things look, I know we'll get through it together. 

"We're stronger now than we have ever been.  

We're hand in hand, we're heart to heart. 

Oh...here we are."

I love you, Babe.  We'll get through it.  I'd do it all again in a minute.  YES!



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At Last (Updated 8/12/11)

I put the finishing touches on our anniversary quilt yesterday and spread it on our bed. My husband was so impressed when he came home and saw it finally finished. I showed him the label with the totally unoriginal name (from the pattern) "Yesterday, Today, and Forever," and he said I should have called it "At Last."

Ha ha ha. What a comedian. I've always said I love him for his sense of humor.

But he's right. It is a major feeling of accomplishment to sleep under a quilt that I made. Not just a nap under a lap quilt, but a real big bed quilt. Unfortunately it is July in Georgia, so it was kind of hot, but that just means we'll be cozy all winter.

I love how the colors turned out; I love how the red center looks like the heart of the quilt; I love looking at all of the different scraps and remembering where some of them came from or what quilt they were left over from or wishing I could find more of that fabric.

Then while we were watching TV last night, I started doing some of the handwork on my Serenity Quilt (from the Fiber on a Whim class). This is what I have so far:

Any suggestions on what more to add or should I stop now before it goes over the top?

Hope everyone has a happy and safe 4th of July!

Update 8/12/11:  after being asked by a reader about the pattern for my king sized quilt.  It is called Yesterday, Today, and Forever by Hazel Metcalf.  I cannot find a website for Hazel, but there is an email address:  hmetcalf AT bellsouth DOT net.  I hope that helps if you are interested.  Also, the pattern calls for 9" finished blocks (3" finished squares) and makes a 90" square quilt.  I wanted king size, so I used 3 1/2" finished squares for 100 10 1/2" blocks.  The finished size was 105" square.

Miles and Miles...

Holy Smokes!

I mentioned that I finally sent my first-ever king sized quilt off to the longarmer (thank you Jan Kramer!). Jan even got it back to me in plenty of time so I could bind and label it in time for my anniversary; but the thought of making that much binding and wrestling the cotton croc through my machine was too overwhelming.

Finally, I decided to cross two things off my "to do" list at once: I made a continuous bias binding for the first time ever (I know, I know) and sewed the binding onto my quilt.

I found some pretty simple directions in a book that look almost exactly like the ones seen here at Quilter's Cache. The only difference is that the directions I had didn't say exactly how much it would make, just that a 36" square made enough "for a large quilt." Well, I have a very large quilt - 105" square - so I decided to use a 40" square of fabric to make my binding.

Can I just say, in my own defense, that geometry was not my best subject? No, the irony is not wasted on me that I took up quilting as a hobby.

The directions worked great. The binding turned out perfectly and quickly, as promised. I am a convert to the method. Sewing it onto the front of my ginormous quilt was not nearly as challenging as I had feared. In fact, I already whipped down 2 of the sides while watching Law & Order reruns that TiVo so kindly recorded for me. The only miscalculation?

This. This is the leftover binding. Yes, the leftover. This is what I have after binding my entire king sized quilt. From a mere 40" square of fabric. How is that even possible? It boggles even the mind of someone less mathematically challenged than I. I haven't measured it yet, but it makes me giggle every time I look at the bundle.

The Quilter's Cache link above has a great formula for calculating the size square you actually need to cut. I needed 420" plus some for my quilt. Let's say 450" for comfort. Multiply that by the width of the binding you are using - in my case 2 1/4". That gives me 1012.5. The square root of that number - 31" - is about the size square I needed. All easy with a basic calculator.

But if you reverse the process and multiply 40" x 40" (the size square I actually used) you get 1600. Divide that by 2 1/4" (width of binding) and you see that I made about 711" of binding. Only about 261" more than I really needed! Luckily it was all out of my stash and I will surely find a use for it.

All in all it was an inexpensive lesson, and one I won't soon forget. I hope you learn something today, too! Drop me a line and share what it was, or link to your blog and tell us all.