June Finish

June was not the best month--one thing after another went wrong, mostly trivial things, but still. The worst of it was when we broadsided a deer on the interstate in the middle of a Sunday afternoon. My husband, who was driving, saw the deer emerge from the woods, headed for the highway at a full gallop. He managed to slow down from 70 to 55 mph, but we hit the deer so hard that the poor thing just exploded. My son, who was coming along behind us about a mile back, said there was only half a carcass left on the highway. Thankfully we had the pickup truck that day, wouldn't have wanted to think what would have happened in the car. Just got the truck back yesterday from the auto body shop--$2600 in damages.

The Department of Transportation is cutting back the growth further and further away from the highway; but at 70 mph, there's not a lot of time to react. The auto body shop and the insurance company both reported that there have been a lot of deer strikes this year because we had such a mild winter. Two winters ago, the deer stripped my evergreens at the front of the house. Night after night, I'd watch through the window around midnight, and three or four of them would come and munch on my plants. By the end of the winter, they consumed nearly all of the greenery. My neighbors' evergreens suffered the same fate. I didn't see the deer this past winter, so they must have found things to eat in the woods.

I did not finish the Mountain View Lodge quilt, which was my One Monthly Goal project for June; but I did finally finish the Star Crazy quilt. Yay! Only took me 10 years, lol.

I quilted it with an all over feather, Plumage, I think, from Willow Leaf. I got off on one of my rows and had to restitch a few places after I got it off the frame, but it didn't take long.

SO glad to get this done!

Credit where credit is due: Star Crazy design by Sue Garman, for Alex Anderson's The Quilt Show, 2009.

Company is coming tomorrow for several days--my sister-in-law who visits once during the summer and right after Christmas every year--and there are other activities planned for the month. Of course I'll be at the sewing machine this month, but I hesitate to commit to a One Monthly Goal. I have a few more days to think about it.

Another thing that took some of my time in June was hand dyeing. There's a Bonnie Hunter string quilt I want to make that uses 4 yards of solid yellow. I used to hand dye cotton years ago, and it occurred to me that it would be a lot less expensive to dye my own yellow than to purchase it. I kept all my supplies over the years, thinking I might get back to it; and I still have a bunch of prepared-for-dyeing (PFD) cotton.

I had to buy new dye, of course; and ProChem has evidently changed some of their formulations. The Golden Yellow I bought 20 years ago was more yellow than what I just dyed some fabric with. I now have some cheddar colored fabric that would probably look great with some Civil War repros. Clearly it will be a process to find the right yellow. In the end, it might be cheaper to just buy it, lol. Still having fun with it though, so I'll keep going.

More soap and lotions got made in June too--a new herbal shampoo bar that smells so lovely, another batch of hair conditioner, another batch of bug repellent, a spray to ease sunburn, some lavender violet face and body cream, and some honeysuckle rose salve. I picked the honeysuckle blossoms and infused them in a lightweight oil, along with some dried rose petals, to make the salve.

The timing of that turned out to be pretty good. My husband was pulling some vining weeds out of the junipers yesterday, and evidently the oils in the plant were toxic as he now has a bumpy red rash all over his arms and belly. We don't think it is poison ivy or poison oak--don't know what it is, truthfully. Haven't been able to identify it online.

Last night before he went to bed, he applied Cortisone on one arm and witch hazel on the other to see which worked better. The itching woke him up during the night, so he tried the honeysuckle rose salve and said that worked the best.

There are courses in herbology that you can take, and they are not inexpensive. I've always been a little dubious that herbs really can alleviate all the ailments they say they can; but I have to say, I'm beginning to be a believer. I bruised my tailbone two summers ago taking my granddaughter down a metal slide at the park, and after a year it wasn't better. I started applying a pain stick I made that contains arnica and cayenne red pepper, and it has helped so much that it mostly doesn't bother me anymore. I've used it for other aches and pains, and it does seem to really work well. Even if it's all in my head, if the pain goes away, I'm all in, lol.

Star Crazy BOM for October

One of my quilt groups started a two-day retreat today, and I used the time to finish my Star Crazy blocks for October. Only one more Irish Chain block to go, and next month we'll make all the half Irish Chain blocks too.

Collectively we got quite a bit of work done today. The snowmen tablerunners are complete as is, except the blue one which is missing a few snowmen. The sunflower wallhanging will have a few more borders, and the crazy pieced hearts will become part of a tree skirt. ChrisP is working on a stack and whack, and BarbD made a mini Sassy Snappy Purse, perfect for a little girl.

Star Crazy BOM for September

I am not behind making the Star Crazy blocks, I'm only behind posting them. These are the ones for the month of September. Haven't started October's just yet but soon. Even though I've done lots of knitting lately, I'm still quilting too, just not much to show for it. Today I'm sewing all day and hope to get caught up with the Bali Star 6Q Challenge blocks.

Star Crazy BOM for August

Today was our summer picnic for Casey's Quilters, and the only time we will meet this month. We had a great day, except that I was hot much of the day--crazy hormomes, I guess, because it wasn't really so hot at Helen's. By midafternoon a cold front rolled in and cooled things off. It's supposed to be in the 50s tonight, thankfully.

I got all nine of my blocks done for August's Star Crazy. I could make a whole quilt with these little 6-inch blocks with blocks in the center--love 'em. I think we must be done with half square triangle units now since we only had to make four this month. We've been making 48 every month.

Four more months and we're done!

Star Crazy BOM for July

This is the last of the 8" star blocks that go in the center section of the quilt, but there are still more Irish Chains to make. We made a few 6" blocks in January, but now we begin making the rest of the ones that go in the borders. I just love these little block-in-a-blocks. In the 6" blocks, the little centers finish to 3".

Star Crazy BOM for June

We had a sew day at Helen's on Friday, and I finished my blocks for June. It feels good to get them done early for a change.

We're halfway there now; and judging from the photos of upcoming months on the Quiltshow website, we're going to be very busy the last six months of the year. We still have to make 34 six-inch border blocks to make, plus 6 irish chain blocks, 12 irish chain half blocks, and a boatload of half square triangle units. Lots of piecing in this quilt.

Star Crazy BOM, May

With this set of blocks, I'm all caught up now and glad for it. I like these little 4-inch blocks in the centers so much that I'm tempted to start a miniature quilt. I bought a couple of Fat Quarter Quilting patterns by Lori Smith on our road trip Wednesday that make up into small quilts 16" x 20", and the blocks finish at 4 inches square. They're so cute!

There were 15 of us that went on the road trip to Pickering Farms quilt shop in New Hampshire, and we did have a great time. The owner Diana has a great collections of 30s reproductions, Civil War prints, and more; and I stocked up on the Civil War prints. Most of the new ones are for an upcoming mystery quilt I want to do.

Star Crazy BOM for April

Here are my April blocks, and the companion triangles are done too. I love the star in a star block--my favorite so far. Tonight I cut out all the pieces for the May blocks, and I'll start knocking those out on Thursday. Almost there!

The Tacoma Lakes Quilters are taking a road trip tomorrow to a quilt shop in New Hampshire. Lunch and supper on the road, and it should be a fun day.

My finger is healing well. It's still bandaged to protect it, but I downsized the bandage so it's not so awkward that I can't get back to some handpiecing. I'm two weeks behind with the hexagon blocks, and I'll get those caught up too.

Star Crazy BOM, March

I'm behind with my blocks, but I'm not worried about catching up. Now that I've finished the two big quilts that had the deadlines, I have more time to work on these blocks.

I finished the March blocks this evening plus the requisite half square triangle units, another 48. There sure are a lot of those in the borders. I use them as leaders and enders while I'm sewing the blocks, and that makes them go much faster.

I have lots of cutting to do over the weekend for some new quilts, but I hope to get some more Star Crazy blocks done on Monday.

Star Crazy BOM -- February

The February installment for Star Crazy is done now too. I actually had it finished by about 2:00 this afternoon, posted it on the Star Crazy blog, then realized I turned two of the corner four-patch units the wrong way in one of the Irish Chain blocks. Frogging it had to wait until after a dinner engagement. I was too lazy to take another photo, but it's fixed now. I like these blocks!

Star Crazy BOM -- January

These are most of the fabrics I am using for the Star Crazy BOM. Luscious, aren't they? I'm using batiks, and I'll be throwing in some scraps here and there if they'll work in my color palette.

Here are the January blocks all done, plus some of the half square triangle units that go in the borders. There are a boatload of these units in the quilt, and I think we will probably make 30 or 40 of them every month. These little jewels finish at 1-1/2".

I have two of the four blocks for February done and hope to have the rest of that installment done by the end of the weekend.

Star Crazy!

I didn't do one thing I was supposed to do in the sewing room yesterday. I was supposed to be embroidering a label for the Pinwheel Party quilt and quilting my mini log cabin. Instead, I sat down to blog a little in the morning and wound up blogging all day. Well.... I haven't had as much time to blog as I'd like, and I was really enjoying myself.

I got myself into a little trouble though surfing the web all day. I forget where, but I discovered a blog called Star Crazy Log, which is composed of a group of quilters who are all making this quilt called Star Crazy by Sue Garman. It's a Block of the Month designed by Sue for Alex Anderson's Quiltshow, and you can only access the pattern if you have a membership. I had seen the quilt on their website last year and thought it was spectacular. I just didn't do anything about it.

I've got about 60 UFO's in my closet now, but that's not nearly enough. So I bit the bullet, joined the Star Crazy Log blog, bought myself a membership to Quiltshow, downloaded the first couple of blocks, and spent some time yesterday pulling fabrics from the stash. I've got the rest of this month to catch up, then I'll be right on schedule for the March BOM. Normally I don't have the patience for BOM's, but I've got so many other irons in the fire right now that this may be a good thing.

There's nothing difficult about this quilt. It's all squares and half square triangle units--it's just that there's lots of piecing. Paper piecing templates for the half square triangle units are provided with the downloadable files, but I'll use my standard method of "make it big and square it up".

I have a good collection of batiks but not so many brights, so I may have to add a few (uh oh, stash enhancing). Even if I have to buy a few fat quarters though, it'll still be a great stashbuster and scrapbuster--the pattern calls for 10 yards of background fabric; and amazingly, I've got that right in the stash. One gal on the Star Crazy blog is using 30's repros, and I bet hers will be beautiful too.