Check-in on the 2011 Resolutions

It's the end of January and I thought it'd be good to check in on my 2011 resolutions.  Or maybe not so good. We'll see.

Here's the list of 11 goals for '11 and how  I've done:
1. Keep in better touch with friends.  Specifically, write, email or call someone I've been out of touch with at least once per month. I've done fair.  At first, I wanted to pat myself on the back and brag about how I emailed 2 friends I never see and then I realized how pathetic that sounds.  Wow.  I found the time to email, not call or write, 2 whole friends. Very disappointing. I need to work on this one.
2. Handmake at least 4 Christmas gifts for 2011. Hmmmmm.  Haven't done anything towards this goal, but this is only January, right?  I'm gonna give myself a pass on this one.
3. Complete 1 sewing project every month Better on this goal.  I started and finished the zig zag quilt.  I made a felt pillow, although I realized I haven't posted anything about this.  And I finished My First Quilt.   
4. Lead a Sunday School Class discussion. Well, I've signed up to do this on the last Sunday in February.  I guess I can then scratch it off the list since I didn't specifically say how many discussions I had to lead. lol.
5. Volunteer for Life with Cancer at least 4 times.  One down, three to go on this goal.  Last week, I volunteered for a kids' program during a parent information seminar on stem cell transplants.  I always enjoy doing this.  We just did some fun drawings and a Valentine's craft. 
6. Donate blood at least 5 times. One down, four to go on this one. 
7. Walk Baxter at least every other day.  I messed up once on this goal.  Grrr.  We both really need the walks.  
8. Perform a random act of kindness each month.  Check here.  Although I believe that random acts of kindness should come naturally to us,  the unfortunate reality is that most of the time we are so caught up in our day-to-day life that we forget to focus on others.  And, it seems a little self-serving to post what the RAOK was.  For my own checklist reminder: dogwood mug.  
9. Learn to bake bread. Nope....haven't had the guts to come near yeast.
10. Keep my weight under 165 lbs. (Won't that be difficult eating all that bread I make. :) )  All good here.  Thank goodness.
11. Keep up with Quicken.  Ugh...I hate dealing with finances. Now, you must understand.  I really, really hate doing Quicken.  It's time-consuming, I don't get any satisfaction from it and I don't see the point.  I mean, you spend what you spend.  I'm not a frivolous person.  Why do I need to know how much I spent on groceries last month?  I guess you can figure out that I didn't do anything with Quicken this month. 

So, that's it for January.  I'll continue to work on these 11 goals in February. 

My First Quilt is finally done

Ok, so technically, it's now my second quilt since I finished the zigzag quilt before completing this one.  But, it's the first one I ever started.  lol.  So, in my heart, it will always be my first quilt. I did free motion quilting all over and am happy with how it came out.  I put a binding on it that is made up of several of the fabrics I used.

Here are some photos of this Disappearing Nine Patch quilt:

 

And here is the back:

 I've said this before, but the tutorial I used for this quilt is on the Obsessively Stitching blog and, I think, was a great one to use for your first quilting experience.  You are walked step by step through making this quilt, which I really appreciated.

Bragging on hubby again

Well he did it again!  Hubby has been playing around with his lathe, planes and whatever tools he has down in his workshop and he's made a couple more cool things.  Here is a small little bowl he made.  Isn't it lovely?  I've forgot to ask what kind of wood he used.

 

Then he made these two utensils.  One is little spreader and the other is a spoon.  Love the shape on the spoon.  It's a great weight and I love how it feels in my hand.

 Lastly, he made a vase.  One of the things I love about it is that he hollowed it so that you could use a small water holder so that you can put fresh cut flowers in it.  For obvious reasons, most wooden vases are only for dried flowers.  You would still need to be very careful using water in this vase, but I love that you have the choice or real, dried or silk.

  I am just so proud of him.  He has such an analytical mind and has never really done creative work before.  So, it's so wonderful to see him reach into his soul and create like this.  Love you sweetie!

my new used kiln

So yesterday I bought my first kiln.  A used Evenheat ceramic kiln 1413 RMII.  And I'm alternating between excitement and buyer's remorse.

The pros:
1. SIZE. The interior is 14.5"dia x 13.5" deep.   It's small enough to fit in my garage.  I can fill it quickly and won't have to wait a long time between loads to see results.  I think this is a good size for a newbie.

2.AUTOMATIC.  It has the RampMaster II.  It's enough that I'm learning about clay, glazes, trimming, etc, etc, etc without dealing with kiln sitters and the like.

The cons:
1.  BRICK DAMAGE:  This is my biggest concern.  Someone fused glass on the bottom bricks of the kiln so the bottom is in pretty bad shape.  The previous owner used ceramic fire cloth (?) to layer over the bottom and said she didn't have any problems.  She was going to rebuild the bottom and never did.  I would like to rebuild/replace the bottom.  I've found that  I can buy a new bottom for about $100.  But there is also a little damage to a few bricks above it.  It's possible that those can be repaired.  I will have to look into that.  I'm also wondering if I can simply turn the bottom over.  I don't know if I can do that.  Here's a picture looking directly into the kiln.  If anyone reads this and has an opinion about how to go about repairing this, I would love to hear from you. 

2.  MANUAL:  The owner had bought it secondhand and didn't have an instruction manual.  I've never worked a kiln.  Pam has always done this, so I haven't a clue what to do.  I wasn't able to find a pdf file for this kiln manual, so I'm gonna contact Evenheat and ask them for one.

So, all in all, it'll be a while before I can use this kiln.  I need to get an electrician out to put in an outlet for me.  Then I'll need to figure out how to work it and then I'll need to make some repairs.  Also, if anyone knows any good kiln doctors in northern virginia, I would love their name/number.

Happy Birthday!

Today is my sweetheart's birthday!  I love you hubby.  Another incredible year has passed and I'm so lucky to have you at my side.  Together we can get through anything!

So, the Zig Zag quilt is complete!  I really, really love it.  Is that terrible to say about your own work?  I just keep looking at it and congratulating myself on my first officially completed quilt. (I still haven't quilted the one I did through Care's blog. But now I have the courage to do it.)  It's about 45" x 45"...perfect for someone's sweet little one.  Here are the photos.

Hubby's first woodworking project

Gotta brag on my hubby.  Over the past year he's been putting together a woodworking shop. Craigslist has been a great source for secondhand tools and after scoring a lathe over Christmas he was able to try making a bowl.  One of our neighbors at the cabin has a never-ending supply of wood that he cuts from his property.  He had some cherry and oak pieces that hubby thought would be perfect for the shop.  After several tries, here is his first bowl.  I left it on my cutting mat to give you an idea of how small it is.  So cute.  I'm so proud of him.  Love the woodgrain lines.

A few new pottery pieces

While J was here over Christmas break, she had clay playtime with me.  At first she couldn't just relax and let the pottery take shape, but after a couple hours she made a few cool pieces that are drying right now.  I only took photos of 2 pieces, but here they are...a small tray (about 3" x 5") and what she thought would be a pencil holder, but it's probably too tall to work as that.

Pretty good for the first time, huh?  I have a few new pieces also.  This vase was made from two textured slabs:

I also made 2 more birds.  Can't figure out what colors to glaze these:

And, lastly, I made 2 small bird "dishes".  Don't really know if they are dishes or bowls,  I curved the edges, so it should hold small pieces of jewelry:

Also have some other pieces in the works....stay tuned
Joy and Peace,
Kelly

I still question

J left to go back to school yesterday. It's a long 12 hour drive and I feel like I hold my breath until I know she's safely there.  Less than an hour after she got there she received an Auburn weather alert.  Due to an ice storm that's expected to hit the area tonight, classes have been canceled for Monday.  So, I guess everyone will be able to get an early start on the preparations for the Auburn-Oregon game.  War Eagle!

I finished reading Unbroken, a remarkable story about a man's survival in a Japanese POW camp during WWII.  I highly recommend this book, but I had to put it down at times because the horror of what he lived through was almost overwhelming.  In the last part of the book, Louie is heavily drinking as he tries to escape the reality of what he experienced.  After reluctantly attending a Billy Graham revival, he remembers how he promised God that he would dedicate his life to Him if he would save him from dying on a raft in the Pacific Ocean.  Thus begins his life's turnaround.

After reading this book, I think it would be easy for Louie to dispel of the idea of God.  How could a kind and loving God allow anyone to suffer as Louie did?  I am still struggling with regaining my faith in God.  After B died, I was convinced that there could not be a God.  It didn't make sense to me.  B was only 19 and just beginning his adult life.  He truly was one of the best people I know....so kind, so smart, so loving, so funny.  And he suffered through so much with leukemia.  Why did Jesus save people who were sick, raise people from the dead when asked by their loved ones.....but our fervent prayers of B's healing were unanswered?  I am still, still struggling with these questions. And I still, still miss my son so much that it physically hurts.

Zig zag Quilt continued

I've finally had a chance to work on the zigzag quilt again.  I just realized that I didn't list the supplies I used for this project:
7 one quarter yard cuts of print fabrics
1 1/4 yds white fabric
1/2 yd binding fabric
1 1/3 yd backing fabric
warm and natural batting

As I said in the previous post, I worked diagonally down this quilt, first sewing the squares together into strips and then sewing the strips together.  Sounds easy (and it is), but I learned a lot doing this.  Especially that I need to work on my 1/4 inch seams!  How can something so simple torment me so?  The seam ripper and I became fast friends.  Stitching the first 4 strips together was going ok, but then all the sudden my seams weren't lining up and I could see it getting worse as I progressed.  I started using a straight edge to make sure that the lines were staying (relatively) straight.  So, the quilt top isn't exactly the way I would like, but as long as I learned something I am good with it.

The other thing I highly, highly recommend is keeping the iron at your side.  Press, press, press all the seams as you sew them, but being careful not to distort the shape of the project.  Press the seams in alternating directions (square to square AND strip to strip).  Misting the fabric lightly seemed to really help with the pressing.

Here is the quilt top after sewing all the strips together.

The next thing I did was trim all the sides of the quilt top.  The final size of the quilt top is about 46"x46".  I'm not sure if this is a good crib quilt size.  I need to look that up sometime.

For the backing, I cut a 50", WOF piece of the pink fabric. Because it is only 44" wide, I needed to add a strip of about 3" wide pieced fabrics.  (This is where I used the leftover strips from when I cut the 5.5" squares.)   I cut the backing width-wise (it doesn't really matter where) and attached the strip.  Here is the finished backing.

So, now I'm ready to assemble the quilt...too bad I didn't realize that I was out of batting.  Guess I'm due another trip to JoAnn's.  :)

Zig Zag Quilt, Day 2

So today I sewed a white strip to each of the patterned strips and then laid them out to find a nice order to them.
I wasn't completely sold on the order, but I knew I wanted the bright pink print in the middle,

 

The next step is to cut each of these strips into squares.  The strips are 5 1/2" wide....so I'm cutting 5 1/2" squares.  And, darn, if I didn't start daydreaming and cut a couple of strips only 5".  Oops, well, thank goodness I had some extra fabric.  I ended up with 14 squares of each print.

Then I got to put my new design wall to use!  My parents gave me this for Christmas and it came in so handy!  I started at the upper left, made a zigzag pattern with the first fabric, and then continued with each of the other squares.  You turn each square 90 degrees to make the zigzag pattern.  Another thing I like about laying out the squares on the design wall is that I could easily move them around to match sizes....since apparently my 1/4" seams aren't very consistent.  (I think I may need to invest in a 1/4 inch piecing foot.)  Oops, notice the 5" square on the far right, second row.  I didn't realize that one was cut wrong until I put it up on the wall.  It's been replaced now.

Time to sew this quilt top together.  You sew diagonally rows, so starting on the upper right, I sewed the last two pink plaid squares together.  Then I sewed the four squares together that are to left of it diagonally. I tried to separate the sections in this photo to give you an idea of how I went through the process.  I left the squares on the design board until I was ready to sew them so I wouldn't get the order and arrangement messed up.

By the fourth diagonal, I was piecing 8 squares together.  I thought it may be better to sew the upper 4 together, then the lower 4 squares, and finally sewing these two strips together.  I only got as far as the fourth diagonal today, but things are looking good.  Will continue tomorrow.

First quilting project of 2011

We returned from Christmas in Texas and I could hardly contain my excitement about going to JoAnn's Fabrics to pick up fabrics for my first project of 2011.  I love to see what colors seem to call out to me and today it was pink and green. I bought several 1/4 yard cuts of  fabrics and headed back home to decide what I should make with them.

 

The pinks seem to scream little girl, so I think I'll make a zig-zag baby quilt in pink and green with white sashing between the zigs (or the zags). I hand-wrote the instructions for a zig-zag quilt many, many moons ago.  This was before I had planned to do this blog, so I am unable to give proper credit for this tutorial...but I am gonna write it all here.  I've decided to only use only 7 of the printed fabrics, so 3 of them get to be saved for another day. :)   Today, I cut two 3" wide, WOF strips from each fabric and 14 similar strips of the white fabric. 

I'm going to use the solid pink for binding and the pink fabric that is second from the right as the backing.  That's all for today on this project....will continue tomorrow.