Reality Bites....Back

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Well, this is what happens when you house sit for a month.  Our  creeping ivy has become galloping ivy.  It is also a bone of contention - I love it, my husband hates it.  (He should sand blast and paint the patio of he wants to get me on board, I'm just sayin'.)

All of that,  a dusty house, and the return to non-central air  conditioning are looming like a veritable sword of Damocles.  Tonight  is our last night over at the house-sitting house and we are celebrating with take out lobster rolls for supper.  It's a Thursday special at a local restaurant and we figured - why mess up the kitchen again?  We'll just eat lobster rolls and soak up the cool.  I came home for a quick shower (hey, I'm a girl and all my junk is here) and check email.  I've also got to find a little hand sewing to take back with me for one more afternoon of movie watching, hand sewing and at about 4PM EDT, one last, great, epic  indulgent nap on the world's greatest napping couch, under my woobie - one of Mom's quilts.  It does not get much better than that.
My two Christmas cathedral window's projects are each missing a tooth (who counts?) so I've got to stitch up a couple of foundations (made easier by my repaired, cleaned , faster, smoother Bernina) and bring them with me back to the "summer cottage," as we have been calling it.

Sigh.

Monday Design Wall

Or, in this case, design bed.  Whatever.

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I thought I had finished my Christmas cathedral windows table runner slash thingie, but now that I look at them as a group  I realize  they do not  all "go" together.  One set is more shiny and gold-threaded than the other.  Who knew?  They all came from the same collection.  This means I'll be making two table runner slash thingies.  I can put one in the front hall under a big glass vase that I usually fill up with holly and cut greens, so that is easy.  The other can go on the dining room table or find a home somewhere else , it's not like there aren't  plenty of halls to deck around here at Christmas.  I just thought I was done - and I'm not! Back to the layer cake of holiday prints to find - and this time I'll pay more attention - the ones I need to complete the set(s).

Design Wall Monday

As the Bernina is still not stateside, my hand sewing projects are continuing with this is a bit of reverse cathedral windows done with a layer cake of Holiday Flourish by Peggy Toole at Robert Kaufman Fabrics. This was my trip treat from a recent visit home that was also an epic road trip.  I found this in St. Croix Falls, Wisconsin, where my sister lives.  I rarely (well, pretty much never) buy Christmas fabric but this collection was such a wowza I could not resist.  It seems a little decadent to use it for this particular block as most of the fabric gets chewed up in the process - but I don't care.  It's for Christmas and I'm willing to bend a little.

I'm still finishing the windows, but it is nice to take a break and rearrange them and see what a little gold star or silver snowflake looks like in the center. This will probably be a table runner or a mini-quilt for the table in the front hall.  It's also going to be reversible so I need to figure out what (if anything) to put on the 'plain' back side of things.

Oh yes - Cherrypalooza continues apace.  I'm still in love with that Kona Chinese Red fabric.

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Happy Landings

I'm here. The flights were survivable, and these ladies below provided my breakfast.  (The chicks will be providing something else in about 6 weeks, but you (and they) don't want to know....)  It's good to be back in the heartland, I feel the space in my head expanding considerably.   The third picture  is a trip treat for my sister, I got back with the cathedral windows thing.  I added the buttons to embellish (and hide my wonky connecting joints. Some were good, some were......well, they needed a button.  The buttons are from my mother's button stash - see, you find things to do with those buttons you can't bear to throw away!  (PS - Yes, I made one for each sister. I'm not stupid.)

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Project Interruptus

My next purchase.

More  details when / if   my finger ever stops bleeding.

Update, Progress and a Smile

My Friday Night Sew-In has become an all day and night event. I'm home today, drinking way too much coffee and getting ready to fire up the sewing room. But first - an update.

It  is looking like 2 pincushions and one small table ornamentationesque thingie with about 8 cathedral window blocks will be the output summary of my cathedral windows experience.  I will post pictures when I have determined how to disguise my issues with intersecting points.   I have learned that people use plain muslin for a reason, that cutting those 10 inch squares requires you to strictly observe the straight of grain rules, and that I just may do this again sometime now that I have learned these and other rules of the cathedral windows road.

For today's smile, here is one of the brilliant re-interpretations of classic art masterpieces from Barbara Brackman. Check out the others (and her wonderful blog)  at Material Culture .

Cancel the Monks

This is harder than it looks - the part that I thought would be challenging (making those graceful curves) is easy. The part I thought would be easy (matching the 4 center points) is impossible.

Cue the Monks!

It's Monday, I'm home all day, and I don't have to do anything until supper tonight.
WHAAAAT?

Yes, it is a paradise day.  I'm due for one.  I've got the sheets washed and hanging outside on the clothesline (okay, they are still the flannel set but it is getting nicer out...).  I've got my homage to Yoko Saito wall hanging spread out on the guest bed for some  major tweaking before  I press, baste and quilt, and I've got my snazzy new (old) TV hand-me-down set up in my sewing room.  Does it get any better than this?  So what am I doing?

Cathedral windows.  You heard me.  When I was about 17 I saw my first cathedral windows quilt and it just knocked me over.  I have never forgotten it.  I have always wanted to make one, but was completely overwhelmed at the amount of time, effort and hand sewing involved.  Fast forward a few decades and I have found some nifty tutorials on the blog sites.  I now love hand sewing and I feel ready to take the plunge.  So far I have only committed to a small set, so it might end up as a pillow. ( Or a pin cushion, if I don't even make it that far. )  I think I'll pop a Monty Python movie in the VCR and let the chanting monks inspire my cathedral windows.

For those of you who want to play along at home, the tutorial is  from the blog Making Ends Meet.  It  is clear, easy to follow, and inspired me to take the plunge:   Cathedral Windows Tutorial