Gorgeous weather and a little Steam Punking Going On!

Spring or maybe even summer is here in NoCal.  Rain is predicted this evening.  Unusual time of year to rain but I'm sure every drop will be welcomed!  I'm just enjoying the sunshine, birds singing and roses in bloom.  I would normally have my garden in by this time, but with the sale of my condo and my impending move by June 30th, I will leave gardening to the new owners.

I will miss tasty homegrown tomatoes.  Not sure if I can successfully grow them in Reno.  I will be there this coming weekend and will go to the nursery and see what they recommend.  There are so many rabbits visiting my yard (even with the rabbit fence I put up - go figure!) I question whether there will be any tomatoes for me.  That is, if rabbits like tomatoes...maybe they only eat grass or other similar vegetation?  Hmmmm, so many things I don't know!

Speaking of Steam Punking (I have deemed the act of making Steam Punk blocks as "punking"), I got a few blocks made over the weekend.  My hands are a little tied, as I packed all but a small selection of fabric and it's in a storage unit.

Here's what I have so far:

 
I'm finding these blocks take quite awhile to come together.  Even with an assembly line approach, first cutting enough for 8 or 10 blocks (5 templates involved in this step), then piecing the 2 curved sections on each blade, then putting the 8 wedges together and squaring up the block.  

Biggest problem of all - I was trying for a more muted palette and my stash is just not cooperating!  I don't buy much in the way of neutral prints it seems.  I buy bright!  Very bright!  Neon bright!  Now I need soft neutral prints, stripes, and plaids. 

I guess I need to do a little fabric shopping...

Aaaaanyway, that's it from the Robertson household.  Hope you had a great Easter weekend!


 

Here and There and Everywhere

I'm truly not sure how I drifted away from blogging for such a long time.  It was no one thing.  It was a little of this:

 



That's Santa Cruz beach and boardwalk with my youngest grandson and my DIL.  It was a gorgeous spring day.  Have no idea why we are crouched over...

And a lot of this:

 











 

These are a couple of photos from my birding trip to Cuba.  The 1950s American cars are amazing!  Actually, Cuba is an amazing place to visit.  I was only there for 2 weeks, but I think that had something to do with my blogging absence.

 

 

The next excuse erh.. uh.. reason I have for not blogging, is that I came back from Cuba and then put my house on the market.  It sold right away and I have until June 30th to move.  To get the house ready for sale, I had to de-clutter and pack up and empty out.  Yea, my stash had to be packed up...I thought I kept out everything I needed to finish a few projects, but I seem to be missing some critical fabric for my Gees Bend quilt.  And I packed the Robert Kaufman Kona solids card, so I'm not sure what the name of the missing fabric is for purposes of ordering more.  I could head to the storage unit to try and find the box that has that fabric in it, but it might be a needle in the haystack process.  Ordering sounds easier!

 

I did get a couple of finishes.  I was participating in the Q1 2014 FAL and had hoped to get 4 projects finished.  I am quite pleased, under the circumstances, that I got 2 projects finished.  Here they are:

 

The first project I finished was the second in a "study" if you will.  I'm thinking a third one is needed to round out the study.  No, I don't know what I am going to do with these babies - wall hanging?  gift?  Yes, I did quilt it myself which is not at all like me!



 

 

 









My second finish is a very long standing project.  I am quite sure I made the top in 2012...  Here she is - my improvisational quilt.  It's a fun little quilt made with scraps.  I like including the central fabric from a prior quilt in little bits and pieces that show up in a later quilt.  I did quilt this piece also.  I really need to learn to be a better machine quilter if I'm going to keep this up!

Whew - I think I have caught you up on everything that has happened in the last 3 months.  Let's see if I can actually get some sewing done before I move.

Aaaaaanyway, that's it from the Robertson household.

2014 Q1 Finish Along

 







      I am in need of finishing projects and seem to find so many, many reasons why I should do something else, start something else, think about starting something else, buy more fabric...well, I think you get the idea.

 

     So, I said to myself - join the 2014 Q1 Finish Along and get a few long standing unfinished projects completed.  My list is rather modest, but I think do-able as I'll be out of the country for 2 weeks in February and I do so like to meet my goals!

 

     Let me introduce you to my hit list:

 

1.  Quilt and bind my Improvisation quilt top that has been waiting way too long for some attention.  You may be able to see that I've started some straight line quilting:  

 

 

2.  This little wall hanging is the second variation of this theme.  I need to quilt it and bind it: 



 







 

 

Here is the completed original wall hanging in this series:

 

 







 3.  My string quilt top needs a back, quilting and a binding.  This puppy has been hanging around my sewing room for a really long time!

 

 

4.  Last but not least is my Gee's Bend quilt (saw this in the most wonderful book:  Gee's Bend The Architecture of a Quilt)  I started this quilt top last year and I came to a screeching halt for some reason I don't recall right now:

 





 

 

     That's my hit list for the first quarter of 2014 Finish Along.  I'm going to link to Katy's blog here The Littlest Thistle and join the fun and games for this quarter.  Why don't you sign up also?  Great motivator for finishing a reasonable number of projects.

 

     Aaaanyway, that's it from the Robertson household.

 

 

 







Happy New Year and a Brief Reflection on 2013 Completions

First, let me wish you all a Happy New Year!  I hope you had a wonderful holiday, took some time off from work and recharged your batteries.

I don't know if you typically make New Year's resolutions - I typically don't.  This year I spent a little time thinking about what and who was important to me and vowed to spend more time appreciating (and spending time with) my family and friends.  Less work and more play is on my 2014 agenda.

I have also implemented a plan to finish UFOs and not start new projects until I have completed or discarded existing projects.  It's so hard not to buy new fabric, jump into new swaps or see a quilt that someone has posted on their blog that I just HAVE to make

2013 was not a particularly productive year for me in the sense of finishing quilts.  I looked back on my post at the beginning of 2013 and I see that I have only finished 2 of the listed incomplete projects, made some pillows, aprons for the little boys, a table runner for a swap, a wall hanging for my studio and finished one quilt that I started in 2013.  Not sure why I was less productive in 2013 as compared to 2012, but it is what it is I suppose.

So here is what I managed to complete in 2013:

 1.  Mod Mosaic Quilt  2. Pillow Swap 10 pillow  3.  ABC Challenge Quilt (it took 2nd place in the Group Challenge 

  category at the San Mateo County Fair quilt show)  4. Version 2 pillow for me  5.  Stash pillow  6.  Wonky Log Cabin 

  quilt  7.  Mid-Century Modern table runner for guild swap  8.  Wall Hanging for my studio.

I also made these aprons for my grandsons:

They were simple to make.  The boys seem to like wearing them and they should hold up to washing frequently.  

I'm working on one of my unfinished projects from 2012 today.  I am quilting it, which is something that I don't usually do.  I also quilted the Mod Mosaic quilt that is shown in the mosaic above.  Maybe that's why I'm making less progress - I'm actually doing the quilting rather than sending it out to my favorite long arm quilter?  Hmmmmm...

I have to head back to work on Monday, so I need to make the most of the remaining time here in Reno and sew, sew, sew!

This is the beginning of my 3rd year of blogging.  I hope that I will have more to report to you in 2014 than in 2013!

Aaaaanyway, that's it from the Robertson household.  

 

 

  

 

 

Round Robin and Charity Blocks

I completed my round on Chris' Round Robin and I rather like the effect of the geese radiating out at the corners.  Chris chose very strong colors (love it!).  I think this top will be a dazzler.   Here she is:

On to charity blocks:  Our guild had created an opportunity to break into small groups and participate in a color group challenge.  Our little group agreed to make blocks (8.5" unfinished) from "our" colors and using one unifying piece of fabric somewhere in each block.

We ended up with 12 blocks that were very different and rather challenging to put together into one single charity quilt top.  After pondering our choices for awhile, Jaye and I decided to divide and conquer the problem, making 2 quilt tops from the blocks we had.

Here are the blocks that I received set into a 48" x 60" quilt top.  One of the other group members will quilt it with a horizontal quilting pattern of their choosing and then some bright purple binding to round out the quilt.

It's rather difficult to see a primarily white quilt top on a white design wall (why didn't I think about that when photographing it?)  The top will have all of the blocks in this vertical row on the left of the quilt and the remainder of the top will be white with horizontal quilting.  It's hard to miss the blocks though!  Our colors were purple, hot pink and lime green - yeeha!  More to follow as we finish these quilts up for donation to a local women's shelter.

Now I'm moving on to my Secret Santa project for our December 14th meeting and exchange. I have to get busy, get started and get finished!  Can't say anything about it or I might ruin the surprise!

Guess I'm sewing again after all those months of nothing...

Aaaanyway, that's it from the Robertson household.  

A Time to Catch-up with my Mojo

My sewing Mojo has been on hiatus.  I decided to take a birding class that meets on Monday evenings and then has a field trip every Saturday for 8 weeks.  In hindsight I didn't realize that the field trips often required departing my house at 5:30 a.m. and not getting back until 6 or 7 p.m.  My error.
Add to that my frequent trips to my new house in Reno, and I pretty much eliminated my desire to sew.  Or my desire to do much of anything else.

Now I seem to be on the other side of the obstacles and I'm getting back to sewing. The first thing that I took on was a Round Robin group that I am in with the Bay Area Modern Quilt Guild.  

There are only 4 of us in our little sub-group.  I received this start from Chris that Jaye had added to:

I first did this:

I should tell you that fabric was limited (especially the white background with the black circles)  and I really had to stretch the fabric to get to this point!

Then I started on what I really wanted to add:

I'm half way there!  Two more corners to add and I'll be ready to pass this on to the next member in our group to add yet another round.  

One of the things that I really love about participating in Round Robins with people you know is that you get such amazing results from such a simple start.  I can't wait until the next person adds their touch to this to see what spin she will put on this experiment.  

I hope you had a wonderful Halloween and I will touch base again in the near future.

Aaaaanyway, that's it from the Robertson household.    

I Found It! Follow Up to my Last Post

I knew I took a photo of the completed round of Kelly's round robin quilt top - I just couldn't find it.  For some reason my iCloud account didn't sync and it remained on my ipad. 

Here it is (taken at the Bay Area Modern Quilt Guild meeting):

Whew - thought I was losing what was left of my mind!

Aaaanyway, that's it from the Robertson household.