Ironwork Quilt

I went back through my posts to determine what I'd already written about the Ironwork Quilt-Along quilt I started in 2012, and it turns out not much.  Not sure how that happened, except around the time I started that quilt, Norm had a work accident and my attention was diverted elsewhere.  Best guess as to why it fell through the cracks.

Anyway, all's well that ends well.  Norm recovered in a few months, and almost two years later, I finally finished the Ironwork quilt!

The flimsy was done in 2012, probably not too long after I started it.  Then it was put on the rack to properly age.  In other words, I hadn't a clue how to quilt it, so there it sat.  Fast forward to now and I finally felt ready to tackle the finish. It seemed to me that it needed a lot of ditch quilting around the rust-brown parts first, so I started there.

For quilting inspiration, I was thinking about what might naturally occur around an iron gate, and ivy came to mind.  My heart-shaped leaves don't exactly look like ivy, but close enough for rock and roll, as they say.

Plan A had actually been a more controlled, larger, leaf-shaped design, done sort of on the order of feathers, i.e., around a central stem.  However, that didn't pan out in practice.  Hence Plan B was adopted, and meandering heart-shaped leaves it was.

I used a variegated Sulky top thread and Aurifil in the bobbin.  Fabrics are Quilter's Candy Solids from Connecting Threads.

You can find the QAL posts for the Ironwork quilt at Piecemeal Quilts, HERE.

Thanks, Sandi, for the inspiration, beautiful quilt pattern, and great instructions.  I really enjoyed making this!

Linking to:

Do a Little Dance

The Jig is Up

There are some interesting people in this world, a slice of which you may very well encounter at your neighborhood big box store.  You've all seen the pictures and know the joke about "the people of" the store that starts with a W.  Like the woman using her ample cleavage as a cell phone holder, while she's talking on said phone and pushing her cart with her freed-up hands down the cereal aisle.  Or the guy in the bright pink baseball cap, short denim skirt and heels, with way nicer legs than mine, to note a couple of visions etched in my own memory.

So yesterday, we're at this particular W-world in a long, slow line.  I don't know if half the checkers called in sick or what, but all the lanes were stacked several carts deep each.  We happened to be in line behind a very nice-looking young woman.  She had her hair in a loose up-do, which struck me as a little odd for the time of day and season, and just above the collar of her shapely fitted white wool coat, at the nape of her tanned neck, was the beginning of what looked like a fascinating tattoo.  She was wearing jeans and brown suede high-heeled boots, unloading a mounded cart full of fairly unremarkable stuff, including cat food and a red plastic snow shovel.  Then she cordoned off a second, separate order of personal-type stuff:  Disposable razors, baby wipes, mouthwash.  In retrospect, I imagine these may have been work-related expenses.

You have time to notice this stuff when you're in line for 15 minutes and they're out of People magazine, which you would otherwise be perusing.

So she gets everything checked out and the cashier tells her it's $249 and some odd cents.  I'm thinking she'll be swiping her debit card, but no.  No, no, no.  She starts pulling cash out of her purse by the fistfuls.

And not just any cash:  All one-dollar bills.  Loosely gathered stacks of them.  She starts handing these to the cashier, who, after mouthing the words "I'm sorry," to me and those behind me in line, has to then count out piles of 10 bills each, layering them in a particular way they must be taught at cashier school.  I don't know; she had a system, is what I'm saying.  (Later the cashier tells me that $91 in one-dollar bills had been the most she'd heretofore had to count from a customer; and before I've paid, a store manager has had to come and switch out the cash drawer, because apparently $249 in singles makes it really hard to close.)

At this point, I turned to Norm and rolled my eyes at the unforeseen delay.  And I may also have muttered something about somebody having had a particularly good night, as well as something about making it rain.

"I get a lot of tips," the customer offered the cashier voluntarily as she forked over another wad.  And then she added, maybe a bit too quickly, "I'm a bartender."

The cashier looked up from the bills for a moment and said, "You must be a really good bartender."

At which point it was physically impossible for anyone to stifle a smile.

* * * * *
Do the Hustle

After shopping, we decided to catch a movie.  We saw American Hustle.

Loved it.  Best film I have seen in a long time.  (Before that, it was Silver Linings Playbook, which coincidentally is by the same director.)



I love character-driven movies, and this was all that and a bucket of popcorn.  Fantastic performances, and funny too.  Christian Bale?  I leaned over to Norm at one point during the film and said, "They should just hand him the Oscar right now."  He WAS that character.  Amy Adams, Jennifer Lawrence, Bradley Cooper (with a perm), Jeremy Renner (with a pompadour), Louis C.K., Robert DeNiro were stellar, every one of them.

* * * * *
Step by Step

I spent time over the weekend doing all the ditch quilting on the Ironwork quilt from a year or two ago.  I've had the quilt basted together since September.

Meanwhile, I needed some of my basting pins back for other stuff, so I reckoned I could do at least all the straight line quilting around the brown parts to stabilize the quilt.  I also put the binding on, because the narrow edge was starting to fray.

I need to practice a bit before I go back and quilt the large open spaces.  I've never put a binding on before finishing a quilt, so it'll be interesting to see how that works.  Will the additional quilting pull the quilt out of square?  We shall see.

Every quilt seems to be a learning experience of some sort.  I learned that I probably should go back and knot and bury my thread ends instead of just relying on backstitching to anchor them when straight line quilting.  I have never done that before and did not do it on this one either, but probably should have.
Live and learn.

Make it Rain

So many things vie for our attention this time of year, don't they?  Gardening, yard work, graduation, outdoor parties, to name a few.  Over the weekend, I finally got a few things done that I'd been meaning to do for a while.  

I potted a few containers with flowers, keeping it pretty simple.  I also finally finished the top for the Iron Work Quilt Along.

I followed one of Sandi's suggested color schemes and just love how it turned out, so vibrant!  I used a rosewood colored solid in lieu of black, which I'm happy about as well.  Now it needs quilting, but that will have to wait a bit.

I need to finish the Hands2Help Charity Quilt Challenge quilt this week.  That means that today I had to (a) wash the kitchen floor, and (b) get down on said floor to pin-baste the quilt.  Ugh, my knees.  On the plus side, my kitchen smells like Pine Sol.

Does anyone actually enjoy basting?  Because I am not even sure that is possible.  And because I'm seriously thinking of hiring it done next time.  Especially if these guys will do it for me.

Hey, now there's an idea: Strip basting!  "Oops, you missed closing a pin.  I'm sorry, sir; you will have to remove your shirt."

Well, a gal can dream...

Sunday Sundry 3-25-12

It's been a pretty good week, all things considered.  Spring continues with its early show.  The daffodils, among other things, are in full bloom already, a full month ahead of schedule.  

Dad has set up his lawn furniture.

If you're thinking, What the hillbilly is that? you are not alone, my friend.  That was my reaction exactly.  All except for one word, that is.

"If you've re-purposed your dining room chair for the outdoors by screwing the seat to a stump...you might be a redneck."  Jeff Foxworthy would be more eloquent than that, but good lord.

Anyway, Dad seems happy with his creation.  "Glad you got to see me!" as he likes to say.

Iron Work
Come Friday night, I needed some therapy...sewing therapy, that is.  I headed on down to the basement sewing room and got started on blocks for the Iron Work Quilt Along.

I have one more "bar" of the asterisk to finish on these smaller blocks, but the big ones are done.  

I did swap out two of the solids for their deeper colored counterparts.  I'm using what I believe is called Pumpkin instead of Apricot, and another deeper turquoise for Ocean.  The other ones were just a tad too light, it seemed.  I had just barely enough of the orange and turquoise from a previous project to cut these pieces out, but I'm glad it worked out.  I really like how this is going together.

Mad Crazy!
I'm pretty stoked for the season premier of Mad Men tonight.  Will you be watching?  I believe it's a two-hour special.  It's been on hiatus for so long, I can hardly remember where things left off, though I'm sure it'll all come back to me once it starts.

We also watched Sense and Sensibility, the 2008 BBC version, this week and it was excellent!  Dan Stevens plays the part of Edward Ferrars.  He is the one who played Matthew in Downton Abbey.  And the "bad boy" character in Sense and Sensibility is also in the movie, My Week with Marilyn, which we watched last night, as is Jim Carter, the actor who plays Mr. Carson, the butler in Downton Abbey.  But the shining star in My Week with Marilyn is Michelle Williams.  Brilliant!

Something's Fishy
We laugh at this sign on a regular basis.  Today, I managed to snap a picture while we waited for our food.  Would you like fries your peanut butter chocolate banana WALLEYE?

Stormin' Norman
Norm had a followup appointment at the orthopedic surgeon on Thursday.  The fracture has not started healing yet but it has not moved either, and that's a good thing.  So he is to remain in the Stormtrooper-like immobilizer at all times, except when showering, which is what he was doing when I snapped this pic.

He's got the dance down now for getting in and out of the shower.  Face west, feet together, left foot over the tub edge, extend left arm to reach the grab bar, shift weight from crutches to left foot, bend right leg until you say ouch, "point your right toe like a ballerina," I remind him, so it clears the tub edge, aaaaaaand in.  He's getting pretty good at it.  I'd give him a 9 for choreography and style.

Whether You're High or Low...
Now this woman, Janelle Monae, gets a 10! Go on, dance along like nobody's watching!

Was That a Hiatus?

I'd been feeling like I hadn't done a thing in the sewing room for quite some time—which is true, but let's focus on the positive. 

After working extra hours Saturday and Sunday, I took this afternoon off to sew (dagnabbit!), instead of just think about sewing.  Although, I will say that in thinking about sewing this past week, I did accomplish some things:  I ordered fabric for the Ironwork quilt-along quilt, and I pondered and doodled how I might quilt the Hubcap Diamond Star Halo project.

My fabric order arrived today.  I think it's an interesting combination.  The rosewood solid turned out to be a little lighter than I expected, but I still think it'll work for Ironwork.  I did order some black as well, though, in case I change my mind.  The print is for the quilt backing.

Oh, and I want to show you something else.  I've been looking around for some more Alexander Henry Heath in black, to no avail.  So I ordered some black and white Crosshatch Sketch from Timeless Treasures, and you know what?  It's pretty darn close!  Here it is, on the left, side by side with some Heath in Metal (grey) on the right.

I say, close enough for rock and roll!

Today, I wanted to practice some free-motion quilting and hopefully (simultaneously) get the mini, A Patch of Sun, quilted.  Check, and check!

First I doodled, but not wanting to waste precious time, I didn't dally on the doodling.  Instead, I went straight to the machine and did some loopy daisies.  

This is just a sneak peak.  I will do a proper post when I've got the mini bound, which I think will be with some of that Heath in Metal.  It's going through the rinse cycle of the washing machine as we speak.

Favorite Things Friday ~ Fab Quilts and a QAL!

I've seen so many beautiful quilty things on other people's blogs lately.  You know how inspiring you all are, right?  Well, you are.  Talented too, my goodness gracious.

Here are two recent favorites, the first of which is Liftoff by Sandi at Piecemeal Quilts.  

"Liftoff" by Sandi of Piecemeal Quilts (with permission)

This quilt just takes my breath away!  I get a feeling of awe and wonder, just like when I'm watching a huge flock of birds rise up to fly in formation.  Some of that awe and wonder is also in regard to the number of HSTs in this quilt, something like 672 of them, all perfectly pieced.  Sandi and her mother worked together on this.  You can read the touching story behind the quilt here.

The second quilt is Gong Show by Lesly at Stitch Literate.  Another stunner!  I love the positive/negative thing happening in this quilt, the use of the brown as the neutral solid, as well as the clever configuration of multiple sized drunkard's path pieces.  Anybody else oohing and aahing?

"Gong Show" by Lesly at Stitch Literate (with permission)

A drunkard's path quilt is on my bucket list, and "Throw Me a Curve" is one of the categories on my 2012 NewFO Challenge list.  I'm just sayin'...  ;)

Also on my NewFO list is a category called "Oddly Inspired," which is where the Hubcap Diamond Star Halo quilt is fitting in, inspired by song lyrics.  But I'm obviously not the only one who thinks "Quilts Are Everywhere."  Sandi (Piecemeal Quilts) was recently inspired by a drawing of iron window coverings from a 1930s building.  She transferred the drawing to EQ and came up with several colorways.  Now she's agreed to do an Ironwork Quilt Along based on that design.  I am excited about that! 

Ironwork* Quilt Along at Piecemeal Quilts

I have been wanting to do something in solids, and this lends itself well to that (though prints would be cute too).  She is offering instructions for two sizes, a bed-sized quilt and a 40-inch quilt.  I'm going to make the smaller version.  

I've ordered my fabrics from Connecting Threads.  Instead of black for the ironwork, I chose Rosewood, which is dark enough to appear almost black (I think), but it's, well, rosewood-y.  Think possibly rusty ironwork?  I dunno, just being a little different in that one detail, seeing as I'm totally copying one of her EQ colorways, otherwise.

Want to quilt along?  Visit Sandi's blog for the details, grab the button, pull together some fabric, and you'll be all set!

Today's fab favorites brought to you by: