Progress on the Table

Yesterday i was encouraged to find this lovely chunk of cherry under a horrible finish...
So I kept going...
And going...

And I'm officially half way done. And I am pleased! I wonder how much more I can get done today? I now have the other half under it's second coat of finish remover. I love progress!

Two finished!

This little quilt is finished now, I chose an orange binding and that went on rather quickly last evening.

I chose a brighter blue binding for this one, and did that one last evening as well. I debated for a while on how to shape the piece so I finally decided to give it this slight curve on the sides and a subtle wiggle in the bottom line. This is fun for me because all my life I've been sewing quilts in straight lines (except my first quilt which was a double wedding ring.)

I found this in my stash and decided to pull it out. I intend to machine quilt it when I get the chance but I'm not done with it yet. Those narrow borders aren't sewn on, so I need to decide how much white to leave. I think I must have done it that way to leave some space for quilting something interesting but I'm not sure my life goes at the kind of pace that it would require to actually hand quilt that border. So I'm undecided on that one. It might have to go back into the stash for a while longer.

The darker diamonds in this piece are all created from "crazy quilt" style scraps. So even though they "read" as fairly solid color, they are actually quite interesting up close.

I was in my sewing studio earlier enjoying the view. The weather has turned considerably warmer and the wood stove has cooled off and I had the sliding glass doors open. As I was standing at my sewing machine, Hope decided to see how things were looking outside.

She stood there for a few moments, looking beautiful and by the time I had my camera in place she needed to shake so her head so she became a blur. Then she decided to go explore until I called her name. So the second shot shows her coming to find out what I wanted with some wierd look on her face, but she is lovely creature and my constant companion. (Plus you can see them I'm still working at stripping that table as well.)

For the dining room table...

I finally decided to do these blocks all in a row, it was the easiest to translate it to a table runner this way. And then I did some machine quilting and then stepped back and tried to decide how to trim it.
I finally ended up making some curvy edges. I'm not very sold on this but it's not like I can't make one with straight edges if the desire should strike.
It is interesting in its own way.
I love what happens when these quilted pieces get out in the sun and the different lines that show up and the way the light catches the textures. It really shows off the quilting, and since I'm developing better quilting skills, I don't mind.
My other project for the day is to start refinishing this 100 year old cherry dining room table. It's got potential, but it's really ugly right now.
And believe it or not, when all the finish is stripped (I started with one of the leaves just to make sure I wasn't going to do some major damage) the dark murk gives way to a beautiful cherry that is quite fetching. So one of these days that table runner will go on this table. When it is finished. Which will hopefully be soon.

Fabric, Roses, Guests, Projects and Warmth

I have started another quilt and I’m not real sure where I’m going with this one. I want something to go on the dining room table in a room that will have this painting on the wall. I painted it a few years back and even though there is a little damage to the surface of it, it still feels much like a personal statement since my name is Carmen Rose. I do love roses! The more vividly fuchsia/magenta they are, the more I love them!

I pulled out a piece of very special hand dyed fabric from Frieda Anderson and put a few things with it, all batiks. I just love these colors and wanted to try to bring out vibrant color by contrasting it with more muddy murky tones. I am pretty sure that was badly unsuccessful but it was an interesting experiment. Now I’m going to need to consider it a while and see where it wants to go from here. The temptation is to cut into it to bring some strong contrast but I am not quite there yet. I think it could be pretty all quilted up and on the dining table under a large glass bowl with water and loaded up with floating candles. Sounds good, right? I will continue to give it some consideration.

I have two girls coming to spend their Spring Break with us, that will be fun. I also have a few furniture projects I would like to accomplish this week. Will I have time to paint a bedroom, make curtains and get them hung? Never a shortage of things to be done. I’ll try to remember to take “before” and “after” photos. I usually forget the “before” photos because I’m so impatient for transformation.

Oh, I almost forgot my other great news! My hubby and friends have been working on a big wood stove for our basement. As I was working at this quilt project yesterday evening, they brought in this big stove dangling on a chain from an engine lift (the thing must weigh a ton) with wheels. The apperatus looks a bit like a miniature crane. Then they carefully lowered it into place and hubby installed the needed pipe and damper and it is a thing of beauty! Well… not physically beautiful, just lovely and warm! And now we can keep the fire mess downstairs instead of using the family room fireplace when it gets ultra cold. It is a cold one here today! Brrrrrr!! I don’t know if it will really heat the whole house or anything, but it certainly makes my studio a lovely temperature! I am lovin it! Fire is good!!

Kid's room quilty fun

Brrrr… it is cold in the studio today so I’ve been working fast. It is time for a snack and warm cup of tea, so I’ll take a break to post something and hope my feet warm up. I have a border collie who has settled in at my feet so it is only a matter of time. (Ah the life!)
So it all started with some really fun fabric sent to me by the lovely Sara that inspired a quick play time in the studio. I just copied those squares and made some yellow stripes to echo that line in the fabric.
What fun! And then they needed some triangle roofy shapes like the fabric. Plus a few hearts inspired by another spot in the fabric where there is a row of hearts.
Hmmm... what does it need now? A rainbow? (seriously?!) I could piece one... nah... life is too short! So I found some rainbow fabric in the stuff Sara sent and used that. I should also confess to being rather new to sewing the wavy lines. Nice and straight clean lines, that's what I usually like. (Although have you seen Robin's work? - her curvy lines are amazing!) This project wanted a little wiggle and tickle.
A little bit of rainbow and this and that. Plus, how about those leftover blocks?!
There it is pieced, I've got it partially machine quilted now. (Still waiting for my feet to warm up then I'll go back down and get at it again.)
And I sure did have fun quilting up this little long narrow bugga, it is now ready for the binding! I've got a little spot on a wall in the kid's rooms that will be perfect for this and it was so fun and fast I might have to make more of these. (Do I smell a series?) There are so many things I want to try!

Abraham's Star

This is the second quilt I started this year and it's finally finished. I'm pleased. It was fun! Slideshow on how to make this star available here.

Thank You Sara!

Bless her heart, Sara had added to my fabric for my children stash in a delightful style! Look at all this fun yardage and this “I love you fabric!” Sara tells me that she included a bit of this in each quilt she made for her two children, what a blessing! And to think that she passed on this last bit to me touched my heart! <3
Check out this cute fabric! I took a look at this and fell in love and started pulling out scraps to play with this in mind.

Before long I had a few wonky squares on the wall. Then this morning I checked out Sara’s blog and she’s making wonky stars that you really have to see! So now I must try that as well! This is SO MUCH FUN!
A friend of mine just gave me these little colorful bottles and I'm enjoying having them in the kitchen window. Right now the leaves are off the trees so we get a glimpse of blue distant mountains from the kitchen and I really love that. The leaves will be back soon enough. I picked up some roses at Food Lion for my hubby and they came in this red wrap that seems to be a cross between fabric or paper towel or something, so I cut a few hearts out of it and taped them in places where we could both enjoy them.