Grey Study

I'm playing with different shades of grey together with Brights I obtained from a recent Brights 2.5" strip swap. My goal was to complete 3 similar quilts all using the brights but each having different greys. As usual, I grossly underestimate the time it takes to finish a quilt. Borders add a whole day and if you want to do any type of decent quilting you have to add a good 10 hours to that as well. Also piecing the backing adds a lot of time.. I like the look of pieced backing as well as the utilitarian aspect of it. I realized around Wednesday I would'nt be able to complete 3 even if I never slept - but thought two could be do-able without borders.

My goal now is to complete the 3 by next weekend - I want them all hanging together at the flea market when I go -

Grey Study #1 - Blue/Greys: Sandwiched, basted and half-quilted.

Grey Study #2 - Black and White: Top and Back pieced whole

Grey Study $3 - Grey Greys: Strips cut only

This shows part of the front of the quilt that's quilted - I did some sitppling and some other random stuff in the grey parts of the quilt - that's what I had in mind when I was piecing this together - Now It looks like I'm going to have to go back and at least do a little quilting in the colored section too, it's not pufffing up evenly. It's still fun nonetheless!

What the back looks like so far..

Thanksgiving Travel Project

For Thanksgiving, I'm going to the Outer Banks. I really enjoyed my last hand project. It was a hexagon/Grandmother's Flower Garden pattern and I used scraps of Aunt Jane fabrics. It was a very small wallhanging so it only took me a couple months. It's layered and basted and ready to be quilted.. but I'm debating on whether to hand quilt it (something totally new) or just machine quilt it (and be done!)
In the mean time I wanted a new hand project and since I enjoyed English Paper Piecing so much I wanted to try something like that again. I want to try the pieces to be a little bigger this time and I wanted to try a different shape or shapes I also wanted to incorporate my hand-dyes and I have been looking at photos of 3D quilts on line. Most of the optical illusion or 3-dimensional quilts require use of the dreaded "Y-Seam" thus perfect for hand-piecing.
I saved a copy of Jinny Beyer's "3rd dimension optical illusion" quilt pattern that looks like a cube inside of a cube.

I'm going with this pattern and size. Instead of using the 18 fabrics and 3 seperate color combos for the "blocks" like Jinny, I'm going to make each block different. This is a great opportunity to showcase my hand-dyed fabrics I've accumilated over the years. = D One thing I have learned from past experiences is that when I make a very large quilt or do any hand project I MUST have fabrics in a lot of different colors or I lose interest, and a UFO is born. LOL. I really think with the color palette I've chosen, I won't lose interest and hopefully enjoy the whole piecing process.
Here's some pics of all my pretty dyed fabrics and on the table they are all roughly cut into shapes in preperation for English Paper piecing. I rough cut this time because last time when I cut the hexies exactly 1/4" larger than the template, it seemed like I didn't have enough room. There was enough room, but BARELY enough which was annoying, so this time I'm using pieces a bit bigger. I'll make the templates or paper pieces EXACT!



Okay, so I think this is going to be super cute and colorful and I can't wait to get started!




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Family Vacation at the Outer Banks:


Along with starting a new English Paper Piecing project, I'm also excited about going out of town for Thanksgiving. My mom and all her kids and my Mom's Brother, his wife and their two kids will be going to the Outer Banks for Thanksgiving this year.
I really look forward to these get-togethers because of all the music. Here's a run-down of who does what. = D




*Mom, Terrie Bowen - sings and plays a little piano
--*Mom's husband, Mark Bowen - listens and enjoys ; )
-*Oldest daughter, me Katie Wiseman - Sings and plays a little guitar
---*My husband, James Wiseman - Plays fantastic rhythm guitar and sings.
-*Middle daughter, my sister Emily Hager - Sings and plays piano beautifully
-*Youngest son, my brother Curtis Hager - Just graduated from Berklee College of music with a film scoring degree. He is excellent at keyboard and guitar but can pretty much play any instrument in his path and also has composed lost of songs and has had many jobs arranging musical numbers for bands and choirs. He's also an amazing singer.
*Mom's brother, my uncle Alan Daubenspeck - Uncle Alan has a music degree, has been in bands most of his life, has composed music, sings beautifully (Sounds like Billy Joel but better) He specializes in keys, guitar and horn - but he also can play just about any instrument that comes in his path. He also teaches music.
-*Alan's wife, my aunt, Debra Daubenspeck - Debra is an amazing singer and is a beautiful person inside and out. She's even recruited ME to sing with their band a time or two.
--*Oldest Son, my cousin, Brandon Daubenspeck - a guitar player, specializes in electric I think.
--*Youngest Daughter, my cousin, Bridget Daubenspeck - Bridget is beautiful, and although I'm not sure if she's ventured into the family hobbies yet, she definately makes us all look good!




Needless to say it is one talented showdown when we get together. Only family by blood or marriage is 'allowed' at our family vacations and It makes my heart almost burst to think about my husband pickin and grinnin along with the rest of my family for the 1st time. I am so blessed to have such a wonderful, handsome, loving, hard-working and talented husband! I can't wait to show him off with the rest of the musical family.



To top it all off, the house we're renting at the beach allows dogs. I get to bring my sweet baby Louie the Dachshund and the Daubenspeck's are bringing their new German Shepperd Roxy I haven't met her yet but she looks so sweet and I can't wait. Louie's never been to the beach- I've been showing him pictures of dog's on the beach.. ya know to get him excited to go on the 9-hour car ride. HAHA

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Jaime's project Finished



To end things off here - I wanted to show you a pic of my recently finished project "Jaime's Quilt" It is an original design made specifically for my friend Jaime (read more about this on my last post.) It's going to be hard to part with this - I love it!

Jaime's Quilt

I'm making a quilt for my friend Jaime for her birthday which is in December. She wanted a quilt or quilt block that she could frame. A quilt is not a quilt until it's quilted so I'm insisting I quilt it.

She chose her colors: Brick Red, Sage, Gold, cornflower Blue (which I didn't use,) tan, cream, khaki. I am shopping my stash and this is what I came up with.

I then auditioned background fabric:




Before I show you anything else - you should see what Jaime actually picked out herself. Her and her husband googled framed quilt images and they really liked this one so this is what I've been working with sort:

I then decided to mix up the diamonds:



Then I wanted to add a little "zing" to the quilt - a little romance, since they are sorta newlyweds and this is a housewarming gift as well. I played around with some applique pieces. Originally I cut the flowers with the idea to put them in the 4 corners and the hearts on the sides. They weren't quite big enough so I switched them, added some leaves and made 4 additional hearts and appliqued them down. This is what I have now:


Lookin pretty cute for my own design I think!!!
I didn't even use a pattern.. TOOT TOOT!
Now I'm checking out Flickr for quilting designs - there's one with a leaf appliqued in each diamond that is just breathtaking - but I think i'm going to do a variation of that - a simplified one-line design and do some tight stippling around the applique then a cable or something around the border. I'll keep you posted.

Bridge Day Camping Facebook Itinerary

*WV Bridge Day Festival 2010 Itinerary*

10.15.2010- Friday:

5pm - ??? ***********Arrive and Set-up Camp (Cantrell Ultimate Rafting)*see below for more Campground info

********************Campfire Dinner
********************Songs by the fire

10.16.2010- Saturday:
8am - 9am: *********Wake up
********************Dress for Bridge Day Festivities
9am - 10am: ********Eat Campfire Breakfast
10am - 11am:********Get ready to walk to the Bridge
********************Put out fire
********************Campfire Photo Shoot
********************Pack bag and head to Bridge
***********You will be going through metal detectors at entrance of bridge - Large backpacks, glass, weapons, pets or alcohol are not permited - just a heads up.
11am - 1pm: ********WV Bridge Day Festival
********************Watch crazy BASE jumpers
********************Visit the unique Appalachian Vendors on the bridge
********************Enjoy the AWEsome views from atop the bridge and take pictures
********************Amish Popcorn, Funnel Cake or Fudge?!
1pm - 4pm: *********Head to town of Fayetteville for Festivities
********************Chili cookoff
********************Quilt Show
********************Photos
********************Vendors - Arts and Crafts - Funnel Cake or Fudge?!
4pm - 5pm: **********Meet/Pow-wow back at campsite
********************Boys: Make blazing award-winning Campfire
********************Girls: Cut up vegetables and help with dinner
5pm - 6pm: *********Campfire Dinner
6pm - ????: ********Games
********************Drum Circle/Music
********************Bring your own Instrument or Drum - (We'll have extra)
9pm - midnight: ****Red Dog Saloon (Maybe????)
Midnight - ???: ****Dessert/Shots at Campfire

10.17.2010- Sunday:
8am - 9am: *********Wake up
9am - 10am:*********Make Fire
********************Campfire Breakfast
11am - noon: *******Pack up camp and pick up trash
********************Check out and Leave
Noon - 2pm: ********Geocaches @NRG
********************Beauty Mountain Overlook
********************Photos
2pm - 3pm***********Drive to Hawk's Nest
3pm - 5pm **********Caches at Hawk's Nest Area
********************Photos
5pm: ***************Drive Home

******All Itinerary items are subject to change at any time depending on the mood of our campers and severity of hangovers (this means you!)

*Campground Info and Directions:

There are several Cantrell campgrounds - we are in the "wooded" campground with the Quiet time of 1AM. Reservation is under Heather Pauley - it's $10/night - they even gave us a discount!

Cantrell campground driving directions:
Click the link for google maps driving directions

If you're going South on I19make a Right Turn

If you're going North on I19 make a Left Turn

the turn off is around Dairy Queen and Quality Inn ... Look for signs to "Gorge Gateway Center" - once on that road (Laurel St) campground road is the 1st driveway on the Right. Checkin at building with a sign that says "General Store."

Heather and I are going up early to set-up camp. We will be there around noon on Friday, the 15th. Feel free to call one of us if you have any questions.

What to bring for Bridge Day:
Tent
Tarp (to lay on the dampl WV mountain ground)
Blow-up Matress and/or lots of warm blankets
Pillows
Flashlight
Longjohns and lots of warm clothes for evening
tanktops and sunscreen for day (gotta love the WV weather)
Extra socks and shoes (WV soil gets very damp)
Cooler, ice and beverage of your choice
Your choice of smoke
Camera
Cell Phone
Snacks
**We'll be bringing propane stove and pots and pans
*** DO NOT BRING FIREWOOD - You can be fined and put in jail - and those mountain boys'll get ya! Ask me how I know..

For Geocaching:
a good pair of hiking shoes
bugspray
jeans, or long pants

Harvest Placemats

I made 6 of these for my mom for her birthday.
I used a mixture of Thimbleberries and some other fall-ish prints for these placemats. Here's a general rundown of how I made them:

For EACH placemat ou'll need:
*55 3.5" squares of autumn prints
*2-1.5"x13.5" strips and 2-1.5"x 9.5" strips of a dark brown mottled for center strips
*More dark brown mottled for bias binding (I used 1 yard total for 6 placemats and have LOTS leftover)
*7.5" x 13.5" light brown color for center
*18" X 25" piece of cotton batting for EACH placemat
*an old CD or DVD
*quilting chalk or marking pencil

Back:
*Take 35 of your 3.5" Autumn print squares and sew them together in 7 rows of 5.
*Rows 1,3,5, and 7 press UP - Rows 2, 4, and 6 Press DOWN
*Sew these together and press to make a 15" x 21" rectangle for back.

Front:
*Take your two 1.5"x13.5" dark brown strips and sew them to opposite sides of your light brown 7.5"x13.5" center rectangle - Press
*Sew your two 1.5"x9.5" to remaining sides of center rectangle and press.
*Sew together 4 rows of 5 3.5" Autumn print squares
*Sew 1st two rows on the 13.5" sides, press - then sew remaining 2 rows.

Quilting:





*Layer Back, batting and front and Press
*Baste with your preference, I used 3 pins in the center - and 6 on the edges - it doesn't need much
*Start your quilting on the front by Stitching in-the-ditch around your 1" dark brown - on both sides
*Now take your chalk if needed -mark, then quilt a grid in the center.


Scallops:

*Look at the chalk marks on the photos.. See there's going to be two humps on the long sides and 1 hump on the short sides.
*Use old CD to mark scallops with chalk - Start by tracing the CD to make OVER humps.. then when you have your OVER humps, go back and align the CD with the marks to make the UNDER humps. The picture explains it a little better.
* Quilt along your scallop line and also quilt aprox 1" below it.
*Now to finish your quilting I quilted diagonal double lines at every inch - You can align your ruler up with the corners of the border squares - You can start with a single diagonal grid and when that's finished, quilt a little less than a 1/4" away from it. OR you could use a double needle if you have that option.

Finish:
*Cut just around the scallop line leaving 1/4" - Bind with TRUE BIAS binding.
*Wash and dry your placemats for that beautiful vintage look ; )

VOILA! you're finished - yeah I know I don't use EQ7 (not yet anyway) so good old graph paper does the trick for me.
My mom purchased some vintage-looking scalloped and quilted placemats a few months back and I got so jealous of them! They were so cute but were totally something I could make. I knew I could do better - and these weren't mass produced and from another country. ;c)

Off-Topic Tuesday

I'M EXCITED!!!!!
Two trips coming up for me!
1st - WV BRIDGE DAY FESTIVAL

I could talk for hours about why I love Bridge Day - but when the leaves start to change, and the cool Autumn breeze blows in and rustles up smells of campfires, leaves, PUMPKIN SPICES! I start to think about Bridge Day.
Every year thousands of thrill seekers come to the New River Gorge Bridge in Fayetteville, WV to BASE jump.

While this may be YOUR thing - it is definately NOT my cup-o-tea! I truly feel you would have to be certifiable to willingly jump off a bridge!!!!
I go to Bridge Day for this:




These photos are from Bridge Day 2007 - my then boyfriend, now husband, my mom and her husband - and Louie the dog. See him helping us stir the fire?!
So precious!
My brother will be here for this year's Bridge Day - and upon googling things-to-do around town on Bridge day weekend - do you know what he found?! A QUILT SHOW!!!
Check out the above Bridge Day Link for more info on the quilt show and chili cookoff!
Another thing we really look forward to is Geocaching. IF you ever get a chance to geocache in the New River Gorge area I highly recommend the Beauty Mountain Overlook Cache (must be logged in to see this) Go early and bring a snack - there's lots of twists and turns on the trail that will take you to the most breathtaking views EVER!!

In the fall WV Bridge Day is NOT TO BE MISSED!!!

Okay 2nd - I'M GOING TO THE OUTER BANKS!!
For thanksgiving I get to see my long but not forgoten Daubenspeck side of the family - and the best part of all? We get to bring our furbabies!
I found these pictures to show my Louie - ya know, just to get him in the mood - he's so excited to feel the sand beneath his paws!