My First Ribbon!!

Woo hoo!! I don’t think I will enter tons of competitions, so this may be the only actual official ribbon I ever win and I am very excited!! My Dear Jane got Very Highly Commended (Bed Quilt category) at the National Open Quilt Competition at Tinahely.
Here are some photos of some of my friends quilts. All the quilts in Tinahealey were gorgeous and some amazing colors, designs and quilting were to be seen.

Before the quilt show I went up for a visit to my friend Sherry for a quilting retreat and I finished a quilt top, a very simple one!! Here it is on the guest bed, I will be making roman blinds and doing a backing for the quilt with the fabric on the border. I am thinking of doing free motion quilting myself on it though I am tempted to have it long armed…

I decided I needed 2 big quilts since I have two daughters, so I am thinking that I will learn how to do Baltimore Album quilt as my next big project and will start working on my double sided quilt again too… always lots on the go…so many quilts so little time!!

 

A winner…and a loser…

Without further ado, the random number generator picked the number 11 which means Tracey has won the lovely sewing caddy kit!! Hope you enjoy it!! I’ll get your address and try to send it out early this week.

The big loser this week: me!! Last week I was measuring my second pink Marilinda sock against the length of the first one and noticed a major problem…I forgot to do ALL of the cable stitches that are part of the pattern and were done on  the first sock. Don’t know how I skipped it completely…geesh… I will be ripping it back to the first pattern repeat… I think I am going to cry. I know it isn’t really easy to see, but when you look for it, it is obvious and I really want to fix it before I give the socks to my friend. Some friends think I should buy more of the pink yarn, but that would take weeks to order from the States and I don’t really want to do this pattern twice in a row in pink…so a frogging I will go!

The other project I wanted to show is an amazingly easy method for using up scraps of fabric and batting to make a two sided quilt!! A lady in our Wednesday morning patchwork group showed me a vintage quilting book with the method in it, but I could make any sense of it!! She was working on it during our group and I saw how it was done and it is so simple, and what a cool way to use up my small wool batting pieces I can seem to throw away!

You basically start with any rectangular or square based block and build from the center. I decided I am doing a Civil War repro side and a neutral side on my quilt and will do scrappy wonky log cabin blocks. I started with a 2 1/2  inch square quilt sandwich, then added 1 1/2 inch strips (CW repros on its side right sides together, neutral scraps on its side right sides together and sewed down the right side of the center square (so that would be 4 fabrics and one batting scrap sewn on that seam)). I flipped the two 1 1/2 inch strips out so right sides showed and stuffed little strips of scrap batting in between the strips… I tacked down the right side of the new strips I added and then continued adding on log cabin strips in the same method. When I got to 8 1/2 inches I stopped and tacked down the edges of the block…I will use natural muslin sashing to sew blocks together eventually. This method lets you use up small strips and scraps and small batting scraps and pieces and quilts as you go…so cool…and a two sided quilt at the end too… I am thinking this will be a favorite method for using up scraps and general quilt making in the future, we shall see!!

If that makes no sense but you are interested in the concept, let me know if you want me to do a tutorial on the method…it is probably out there somewhere already, but this is the first time I’ve come across it and wanted to share!!

Well…I have been under the weather for days now, and am started to feel a bit better, so wanted to catch up on the blog before I fell asleep again!! Next week I hope to get some little gifties done for teachers and friends, and maybe a block or two for my new quilt. I miss crafting when I am under the weather!

 

It’s Beginning to Get a Bit Spooky Around Here!

Aine and Aisling went to Aine’s school disco last night! Here are a few photos of Aine and her friends partying down (okay all the did was hold hands and walk in circles around the dance floor…they didn’t want to dance!). It has been a while since I wrote how to pronounce their Irish names, they don’t sound like they are written! Aine is “on-ya” and Aisling is “ash-ling”, just in case you were curious!!

It was a dance complete with a DJ and a bar for the parents, beer at a kid’s disco…well when in Rome Ireland… It was really crowded and crazy but the kids had a great time seeing their friends late at night (well…7-9pm late…)! Very cute!!

Aside from Halloween happening, I’ve been doing a bit more little projects here and there. I finished the next set of swap blocks for my Dear Jane swap with Katy.

 And here is the status of my Ocean Waves quilt on my design wall: I’ve got 49 of 80 done…getting there slowly, oh so slowly!!  But I love using all the little scraps from the DJ and my repro box!!

My friend Jane and I have decided to try to meet here at my house on a Wednesday night for a mini sewing bee. She is a fellow quilter, very artistic and always inspirational. She brought over this African quilt for her future nephew whose daddy is Zimbabwean. I’m not sure, but Ruth, I think she got her inspiration from a similar book that you did…those paw prints reminded me of your quilt! She used all kinds of sizes of scraps and it really reminded me of a Gwen Marston type free form quilt construction… I love it, despite being mainly a fan of antique looking quilts!!

Oh yeah, and she has succumbed to “Jane’s Addiction” fitting, considering her name, lol!!

She did this wallhanging for her sister but she is talking about doing the whole quilt for herself now!! Mwa ha ha!!!

 

My Cup Runneth Over…

Baptist Fan quilting on Applecore Quilt, originally uploaded by Cathi O’Neill.

First thing, let me show you the baptist fan quilting I’ve been doing on my applecore doll quilt. I decided on natural thread (thanks for your opinions!) and I am doing the freehand baptist fans I learned about in Tonya’s tutorial on Bonnie’s Quiltville site. I love the textured look it is getting. Doll quilts are great for practicing too!! It won’t take me a year to finish a quilt, like with my big Dear Jane!

There is a new small quilt swap starting up, a four seasons swap, check it out here!

I have also started my second sock and am working my way down the leg now, cool!

But let me tell you why my cup runneth over this week! My good friend Carrie (who I’ve only met a few times in real life, and keep in touch with mostly via Windows Messenger!), came for a visit yesterday and look what she brought me and the girls. She is the sister in law of a friend I made back in our old area near Waterford, and we bonded because we were both Americans married to Irishmen, and both liked crafting, lol. Carrie, her husband, and her two gorgeous kids came for a quick visit on their way back to Maine yesterday and look what she brought me! Some Heather Bailey, Joel Dewberry, and Amy Butler fabrics, some wool for felting, some dishcloth cotton, a gorgeous felted bag, a magazine, a pattern, a crewel embroidery project…and some great stuff for the kids too!! So wonderful!

I am very lucky to have made such wonderful friends both in real life and online. I have sent out some Dear Jane starter packages for a few online friends in the last few weeks, and got a lovely thank you packet back from Monica at Quilt While You’re Ahead, some lovely fabrics! Another friend just emailed me today to tell me she’s sending me some batik pieces as a thank you to help with my dad’s quilt. I sometimes think I get more back from the universe than I send out. Thank you everyone for your generosity!!

On another note…we are having a very wet summer here in Ireland so we’ve had a few days of sunshine this week and have taken advantage. The girls helped me pick lettuce from our small veg patch tonight for a nice salad. I love being able to make a meal from our own patch of earth.

Aine has started her own pink quilt. I mark little dots where she should put the needle up and down and she has sewn the square together on her own…will have to get a photo of that!! Aisling has been potty training for the last three days, so we’ve been staying close to home. The first day was abysmal, but something tweaked yesterday, and she has been doing great since then!! Oh the joys!

I’ve been contemplating Christmas gifts lately, my dad’s quilt, a special thing for mom, and now all this wool yesterday has me thinking of face cloths with the cotton, felted bags…going to start going on those soon so that maybe this year I can get more done!!

 

Home from Portugal!

View from our apartment in Portugal, originally uploaded by Cathi O’Neill.

This is the view from our living room in our apartment we rented for the week. You can’t see it in the distance in the photo but there is a view of the ocean as well. The lovely pool was a short walk away, and we had access to a kids pool and play area in a neighboring complex. We felt we got great place for a totally reasonable price!

 

DH’s brother and partner and their two sons, Merlin and Noah, live just down the road, and the kids had great fun getting to know them better. Look at Aine and Merlin holding hands. They did that quite often, it was too cute!!

We went on beach barbeques, a water zoo with dolphin shows, the local zoo where Aine saw her favorite flamingos, saw the local city Lagos, went to the end of the world (OK, the westernmost frontier of Europe, last sight of land for Columbus for a good while!) I swam in the ocean twice, tried to swim every day, read one whole book (The Mermaid Chair by Sue Monk Kidd) and got halfway through another, finished a doll quilt and got through the heel gusset of my Pomatomus sock. We also had a few late night meals with family, and I was able to get drunk one night (which for me entails about 3 or 4 drinks over the course of a night! I’m a lightweight with drinking, if not literally!!) Not bad for a week.

I took a silly fun photo for the vacation photo contest on Summer of Socks. Here is my sock at the “end of the world” beyond this point there be dragons!

Today is our wedding anniversary, 12 years now, how time flies!! We got married on a blistering hot day in Woodstock Virginia. The wedding was at a lovely victorian inn called the River’d Inn. I changed out of my wedding dress and into a swim suit while listening to our wedding band playing traditonal Irish music…pretty laidback wedding, lol!!

I’ll be mostly unpacking, washing clothes, and working on some quilting. We have both decided that today is our first day of Weight Watchers again, so Dave will be cooking a nice but healthy meal tonight!!

OK…so better get going, hope to layer my doll quilt for hand quilting (have fallen in love with hand quilting!) and cutting out some more ocean waves blocks…and unpacking…and….

 

Doll Quilt Swap Quilt – Finished!

Doll Quilt Swap Quilt – Finished!, originally uploaded by Cathi O’Neill.

I got this finished yesterday, woo hoo! It will be out the door and on its way to….???? before our trip to Portugal tomorrow. I feel I cheated on it slightly as I decided to machine the binding on, though I hand finished it…so only the binding was done by machine on this. I really want to keep it, lol, so that is a good sign right? It is the first thing I have hand quilted and finished!

I’ve included some scraps and had fun wrapping it with a wide strip of Civil War repro fabric…

Here is a photo of the back of the quilt, you can kinda make out which blocks are where with the quilting designs…

I plan on bringing my sock knitting and a hand piecing project, my applecore quilt, to Portugal for evenings and quiet times, if there are any!

The cool protectors for the ends of my sock needles I bought off of etsy from lunastrixae

 

Updating…

Doll Quilt Swap Sneak Peek, originally uploaded by Cathi O’Neill.

I have been getting things done in the past week, just haven’t stopped to blog them. I work from home doing freelance design, and got busy the last few weeks, and find my nights taken up with that work, rather than my crafting…

I have joined a few swaps and knit-alongs this summer and have started working on a few of them. My doll quilt swap partner likes Civil War reproductions….hmmm…wonder if I have any of those!! I poured out my repro collection on the floor to start cutting out some more squares for my Ocean Waves quilt, and to get a few bits of fabric for to send along for Lucy, who is going through a rough time now, and also  to choose fabrics for my mini DJ doll quilt I will try to hand piece and quilt in the next few weeks… I will use the machine in the end if I need to…but will try to get it done by hand!

I have gotten three blocks quilted on my big Dear Jane quilt. I will put thumbnails here, but you can click on them if you want to see the quilting. I’m still a beginner, so don’t look too closely.

I’ve also been working on some commissioned name pillowcases for my SIL. I had thought about selling these, but they take a lot longer than is cost effective for a sales item… will continue them for gifts though, from time to time…

I’ve started on a sock for the Socks of Summer 2007 knitalong. I had tried to do swatch and calculate exact measurements to fit my large calves, lol, and for all the math and extra work I did, they were too big! So… I decided to go for pretty instead. I’m doing a pattern called Pomatomus (say that 3 times fast!) with a gorgeous clamshell pattern. I’ve done one pattern repeat, and really like the way the yarn looks in this pattern! I hope to do a couple of pairs of socks over the summer and learn how to make some that fit properly. This is only my second pair, but it is my first pair using tiny tiny 2.5mm needles!

 I’ve also made myself a little logo for the blog, one I can use for labels of things I might sell or for the swaps, maybe even some notecards… Do you like it? (check the banner!)

 

Just like Tribbles, They Keep Multiplying!

Ocean Waves scrap blocks, originally uploaded by Cathi O’Neill.

See that basket? That is my basket of smaller Dear Jane scraps and muslin scraps… See those blocks? I got 37 8 inch blocks from that basket and it is still FULL!! I did manage to clear it of anything that could be turned into a 3 inch square, so I have a crumb pieced quilt in the works (in my head in design stage, lol) for the small pieces.

Barbara and her husband Hakan arrive tomorrow for a visit. I am looking forward to a crafty week, Dave is looking forward to a golf filled week. I hope to show them around a bit as well, and take them out to hear great traditional music. Should be fun… if my poor kids ever get rid of the germs that keep coming around… There are more head colds and ick going around and everyone’s kids seem reinfected around here… Keep your fingers crossed that my girls are happy tomorrow morning, I have 5 hours round trip in the car with them while I pick up our visitors at the airport in Dublin. I really hope I don’t have to tell Barbara and her DH to find their way by train, but will have to if the kids are not on the mend!! Ugh…what bad timing.

UPDATE: Have been up since 5am…looks like Barbara will be arriving by train and I will take my coughing, sniffling, fluey kids to Limerick (30 minutes) instead of Dublin (2 1/2 hours) to pick them up. I wasn’t relishing 5 or more hours with cranky kids after 4 hours sleep (did I tell you I was up at 2, 3 and 4 am as well with kids!!) I hope they don’t mind taking the train!!

 

Amelie Cardigan

Amelie Cardigan, originally uploaded by Cathi O’Neill.

Well here it is with its buttons attached now, an official Finished Object! It was a great pattern…the sleeves are a bit tight on me, but I hope that they will stretch out a bit… I love all the cables, especially the celtic pattern around the yoke.

Now on to my moebius felted bowl…I am currently being killed by just one part of the moebius technique I am trying to get right…I fudged it on the scarf and I am trying to get it done right for this next project.

I might start on a few ocean waves blocks again…moving forward…slowly!

 

A Pox Upon This House…

Ugh…since last Thursday night there has been much sniffling, aching, moaning, and whining in this house, and some of it was even the kids, lol. My oldest, poor Aine (onya), got a nasty sore throat and a bit of a flu, which morphed into a bad head cold which I had Sunday (while DH was away all day on a vintage car rally with his brother…can we say TIRED!). Aine is still not 100 percent now on Tuesday, but she is so much better than she has been… I just wish for longer than 1 hour increments for my sleep soon, before I go demented. Sleep deprivation is cruel.

But on the flip side, not leaving the house to go farther than the wheelie bin to dump our trash has led to lots of progress on various projects…

My Amelie Cardigan by Debbie Bliss (in her new book based on her Pure Cotton line) is done…just need to buy some buttons! This is a beautiful cardigan with some unusual construction…probably a bit challenging for my first big sweater in a long while, but well worth the work.
Aisling’s I Spy a Double 4 patch quilt is done.

I have made good progress on the girls knitted fairy dolls, just wings and some sewn dresses and they are done!

Many many HSTs have been sewn and pressed (have to get my rotary cutter back from Kathleen, who I taught a 9 patch to last Monday, and has now nearly finished her first quilt!!)

I had some lovely photos of my garden, washing line, and the said vintage Model T Ford car of my brother in law…before the pox came upon me…was planning a lovely montage, but that is too much work right now…