Weight of Love

Valentines day. Love is in the air...

What better day to dig into the Jack tin and set to work on the "Weight of Love" quilt that I started in November when the MMQG brought quilter extraordinaire Libs Elliot to town for a workshop.

I pulled some yardage from my stash with these incredible fishies swimming in a bright orange sea and then dug into the shelf of fat quarters for a bunch of supporting fabrics. True to my "just giv'er" style I didn't plan, count or otherwise predetermine anything about the fabric placement. I am always happiest just winging it!

I fussy cut all the fishes and cut up a whack of triangles and half hexies to prepare myself for the workshop, packed up Voodoo Duck and all my gear and headed off to the classroom.

Libs says that Y-seams aren't supposed to be cry seams. I've never really had trouble with them so my progress was uninhibited by the little buggers. Things went together quite smoothly until I got bored with the monotony  of repetitive sewing. Y'all know how much that bothers me. I think I got 6 or 7 rows completed that day.

I've pulled it out a couple times since but haven't really felt compelled to jump back in the fish bowl and do anything with it.

Until today...we've entered back into the hell that is Snova Scotia in February; yesterday's storm has dumped in excess of 50cm of snow and my back is too sore to shovel. So, I'm off to swim with the fishes instead.

Barn There, Raised That...

Let's see...what else came out of my Secret Society of Barn Builders adventures?

Well, last fall I took part in a swap with my guild and made a pretty cool quilt for my lil friend Linda that was modeled after her families fish store in Prospect, Nova Scotia.  I'll share the process pictures here again but won't rehash all the details about it because I blogged about it in this blog post that tells the whole story...it was a very special momento for my pal and she got a little misty. It was so hard not to spill the beans about the book at that time! Knowing how much she would love this made the building of it so much more exciting...sometimes the connection is the really special part of a gift like this.

In the picture above you can notice that I made the door on the left really short. Why? I have no idea...it's not like the folks of Prospect are all little people...I guess I was just not really paying attention. Linda recently consoled me after one of my seemingly frequent stunned-as-me-arse moments by saying, "Don't worry, at least you're cute!" When I noticed my mistake, I just added on a chunk to the bottom and made it bigger. That's the beauty of free piecing! Add more on, take some off...do what makes your heart sing!

This building is just a bit fancier than the 2 that went to Julie for the gallery...this one has more dimension as it's not viewed straight on. For Ale was only marginally more challenging to build...I just had to consider the angles of the left side so that the perspective would be right. I am still loving the fabric choices with the bird laden sky and the fish infused water under the wonky wharf stays (that's local wharf rat speak for poles). Here in our oceanside villages the gulls are a dime a dozen, they are ever-present. The fish? Not so much...but it is still pretty commonplace to look down over the side of a wharf into the water and see some pollock swimming around.

And then at Christmastime the SSOBB decided to do a Secret Santa Swap, I got paired up with Julie. I'm so over-the-top busy in December with hairdoos that she graciously agreed to do our little exchange after the holidays. So right after, I got to work building her something special.

My regular readers by now have a pretty good idea that I am typically unimpressed with the amount of snow fall we've had the past few years; I have come to call this fair province Snova Scotia and am admittedly jealous of Julies less than frigid, open winters in Tennessee. So, I just knew I had to send her some snow...

I did a little scrounge through my stash, because at that time The Stashpocalypse had come upon me and I wasn't fabric shopping. I found lots of treasures and potential bits and pieces kicking around to put into play. With these in hand and a rough sketch on the table I was off!

See that little angled empty area under the door? It was a big gap left in my free picing fury. When I stepped back to take a break I decided I didn't really want to cut off the bottom of the building so I very carefully set in the ramp piece...measure twice (don't forget to account for your seam allowances), cut once! Those Y-seams are sometimes tricky but if you're careful you can put them in lickety-split.

In another of my stunned-as-me-arse moments I penned the date on the label 2015. I suppose the whole swap started then so that's why my "cute" lil brain defaulted to 2015...but I made this thing start to finish in 2016 and by the time I noticed my blunder I couldn't exactly scratch it out. (*Sigh... Sorry Julie.) Maybe one day I'll be not-quite-so-cute...but what then? Just stunned? Dog help me.

Free pieced barns and letters...what could be better?

I thought she'd be able to use it with her seasonal decorations on a table somewhere, but she liked it enough to hang it in the cozy spot where she does her writing.

How about you? Have we inspired you to attempt building a barn of your very own yet? Let me know with a comment below about a barn that might have tickled your fancy enough to give this barn building gig a go and I'll enter your name in a random draw to win a signed copy of the book so you can get started!

Leave a comment before the morning of June 19th to be included...I'll draw for it while I'm partaking in my weekly, bleary eyed Sunday morning ritual of brown holy water, a lap full of springy things and Johnny Cash on the airwaves.

Snow Day...Kona Day

I had storm chips...and storm chocolate, storm whiskey and storm cookies. I also had a bit of time on my hands and the desire to dig out Project: Kona Nerds Unite! You might say I had everything a girl could ask for, seeing how there were even enough leftovers in the fridge to keep me from doing much in the kitchen come suppertime.

Mr. Purpleboots and Not-So-Little Purpleboots seriously spoiled me this year for Christmas. Among other things, they got me this simple little cabinet I've been pining over for my sewing corner. I'd like another one to help corral my mess in the corner of the rec room. Ever since The Robot came to roost in my sewing room I've had to resort to commandeering the corner as he takes up most of the floorspace in that wee room leaving no room for sewing. I'm not thrilled with the set up, but at least I have a spot. The boys aren't thrilled with my presence in there as it means the overhead lights need to be on when I want to sew. Problem? Seems these bright light cast a glare on the television screen. Poor Petals. At least they don't complain too much. They do seem to like my cooking so are treading lightly in the complaint department lest I get annoyed and go on strike or worse.

Once we put the little cabinet together last night, I dug out a couple lil wooden whiskey crates that I'd squirrelled away quite some time ago. These make great hiding spots for some of my threads. I'm going to drill and put dowels in the bottoms of them eventually to tame the roly poly spools...eventually. I might even stain them with something to age them a bit...might. Rome wasn't built in a day! My Rome ain't likely to be built in a 100 days!

So...about that Kona.

I love Kona. Have I told you that lately? I managed to get another row attached to the top half. I cut a whack of little 60* triangles to form a row of joining patchwork, made some other weird bits & pieces and whipped up some checkerboards too. I am totally swooning over the aqua and cardinal together. Yum. I have no idea how long this flimsy will be at its completion, but the width at present is 76" so it'll be a good sized quilt.

(And seriously. The SKY block...check out that puppy...it is HAND PIECED and covered in awesome sauce! Wow! Some Kona Nerds are hardcore.)

I forgot to take process photos. But, I did manage to grab a shot or two of my mess. Kona Nerds are notoriously messy creatures I hear...or maybe it's just this one in particular. Quilty folks with design walls (as opposed to design floors like me) can't possibly have THIS much mess fun. This jumbled "layout" happened right about the time Mr. Purbleboots came home to a warm and exuberant greeting from the Springy Things...laminate flooring is clearly too damn slick to turn sharp corners on for the two 4 footed speed demons that reside here. At any rate, the mess was gratifying and easily tidied up just like the chocolates I opened earlier. If you look closely at the photo below you'll see that Cooter left his orange ball by the Project...poor dog got tired of begging me to go play and instead snoozed the afternoon away in the big chair.

The snow outside? Well, that's not tidied up...or exactly gratifying in any way. Oh well, there are chippies and there is whiskey. And while there may not be snow worthy ambition, there's always more Kona.

Defeat

I hate to add myself to the harmony of the voices of folks fed right the f*ck up with winter but, I am defeated. Old Man Winter- you win! I give up. I want to hibernate. I don't want to go outside. I want to sit. Eat chocolate. Drink whiskey. Maybe sew a little. Dream of June.

We haven't seen snow like this in years...many, many years. I do remember real Canadian winters like this as a child, but this...this is not what we've grown accustomed to in latter years here on the coast of Nova Scotia. The calendar says it's Spring now, but clearly, it lies.

Things have slowed around here to a snails pace, my laziness has thwarted my productivity so there is little to report. There was some serious retail therapy at Avonport Discount Fabrics with The Enabler on the weekend. In fact, I ended up partaking in so much therapy that it required me to finally spend an evening folding, sorting, stacking & tidying up the quilting room just so I could squirrel it all away. I can almost see my desk now! Now, I didn't get carried away with myself and tackle the overflowing scrap totes, baskets or bags...but a little order is better than no order, right?

I quilted up my Tula Pink jelly roll throw; figured I should swirl the bejeezuz out of it just to help commit the new FMQ movements to my muscle memory. It's funny how often my arms want to revert to their meandering ways even though my head is yelling "swirl dammit, swirl". The evidence of the Head vs. Arms fight is visible in a few spots at close inspection of the quilting...but hey, it just adds to the charm, right? And, speaking of charm...check out the pieced back on this puppy. I think left over charm squares and boring hand-me-down fabric came together rather brilliantly for my make-it-do, make-it-modern backing.

At this very minute I should be wrapping my hands up nice & tight and pulling on my boxing gloves. It's Monday, I should be boxing. But it's awfully cold out there and, since all schools were closed today with weather related concerns, my boy went trucking with his Dad for the day. It's deliciously quiet here; the perfect cop-out/sewing opportunity. I did mention my current tendency to fall toward laziness, didn't I? So, I'll leave you with a glimpse of what I'm working on this morning...which ultimately is a direct statement as to how I'm feeling.

Look closely. Say it out loud.
Can you see where this is going?

Just Another Snowy Sunday

Snow Sew Days are the best!

Like everyone I talk to these days, I am growing very weary of winter. We got the mother load of snow last night and it continued all day; shovel, shovel, shovel. On the upside, despite the really high blizzard-y winds, the power managed to stay on and I was able to brew a pot of brown holy water, do a wee bit of long overdue some cleaning and spend the rest of the day puttering away in my sewing corner.

The bits and pieces for Hope Lives in Pink Houses were perched on top of my printer in an old slipper box so rather than put them away when I was tidying up I decided to go ahead and build the flimsy. I hadn't put much thought into how I would attach the elements and had already free pieced several improv slabs to use for fillers and borders. I don't tend to obsess much about free pieced quilts...I just like to keep moving forward and let the pieces fall where they may.

Cut. Sew. Press. Cut. Sew. Press.

Sometimes I'm happy with it, sometimes I'm not; only rarely will I rip out my work...instead, I'll cut it up and sew some more. I play, I have fun with it following only my whim, saving my overly critical eye for other projects & precision piecing.

Hope Lives In Pink Houses 

This afternoon I made a couple more trees and began building borders. It's a really busy piece so it seemed that a small white border would allow a bit of space for the eye to rest. Rather than simply stitching a border all around the center medallion I came up with the idea to extend the borders out to the edges...it's not difficult to do, but it is a bit more interesting and I think it helps a little to break up all that crazy free piecing.  I ended up incorporating some selvedge strips (all the cool kids are using them) and sliced up my improv churn dash block, adding each part to opposite borders. Notice a pair of pink angel wings on the left border just beneath some heaven bound flying geese doves?

Right now, I kinda like it.
I also think it might be finished.
When I am ready to quilt it I will know for sure that's it's done.