Back pain and paper piecing

So my back decided to cause me great pain the last few days. I was doing Little Bit's hair after her bath on Saturday, turned to grab another elastic and popped three ribs out of place. Which cause my low back to start spasming, which forced my tailbone out of place. Very painful. Very irritating also. So until today I haven't been able to do much. I've been to the chiropracter twice and go again tomorrow. Little Bit is mad at me for not being able to play much the last few days.
But the pain is starting to diminish and I'm too stir crazy to not do anything so I decided to do another paper pieced block, it's not a star but it will be used as one.


I have discovered that I am a) not really patient enough for paper piecing to be my primary method b) paper piecing causes more back pain than regular piecing and c) my attention span is shorter even than I thought it was.

The pattern is another provided Carol Doak and her amazing online quilt group.

Wall Hanging

So up until about 2 hours ago I still had a snowman wreath on my apartment door. As it is now officaly spring, and flowers are actually bloomimg, I decided I had to change it. I didn't want another wreath, I just haven't liked any I've seen.
So I dug through my small flimsies and got out my Urban Indigo star, familiar from my header.
I quilted it and it looked ok. It wasn't pieced the best because I was just making up the design as I went so didn't really plan well.






So not too bad right?
Well then came my nemisis. The binding. I hate binding. I am not good at it. I can't hand sew because my fingers cramp after about 12 stiches.
So what in blue hell (does anyone know where this saying came from?) made me think I could attach attractive binding to a quilt with 8 points and 8 indents? Yeah this was dumb. A perfectly decent wall hanging is destroyed by my binding. I don't really want to show anyone but I will.




Ok not too bad?
Wait until you see the back. Its bad, really bad. But I was at a point that I really didn't care.
I mean who is going to see it, right? It's against a door.



So out on the door it went. It'll keep people from thinking my door is the door to the garbage room. Which will keep my little puppies from barking up a storm and making me deaf.


My exams are done now and I don't start back until May 8th so I'm hoping to get a lot of sewing done. I want to try a few more paper pieced stars.

CF fundraiser

Perry has a link on her website to donate and buy raffle tickets for a 98x96 quilt made from Moda's Chocolate line. It is really beautiful.

Perry's granddaughter has CF.

CF has hit my extended family twice and is really a horrible disease, and hard on both the kids and families.

Check it out if you can.

Paper piecing

Before today this is the only paper piecing I had ever done. I haven't gotten to putting binding on it but it is quilted, though it needs an iron from the look of the picture, which could just be from me just dropping it on the ground for the pic.

I took a class a few months ago because it is something I just could not for the life of me figure out. It really is the easiest thing, if somewhat time consumming and wasteful. The wasteful is just because I haven't learned any of the strip methods that are out there. A few women off one of the yahoo lists say they have a few methods to seriously reduce the waste, and Carol Doak has a method also. I hope to buy her books soon. I love the designs. I have another book I got for my birthday, 365 Foundation Quilt Blocks, by Linda Causee but it is more just patterns, some great ones too.
Paper piecing came up on my the Pickle Road list and some one mentioned Carol Doak has her own list. So off I went and joined. It is really neat. She has very generously added some patterns to the list. So I decided to jump in and made this.

There are 56 pieces in one 6" square! It took forever, more because Little Bit was wanting something every 5 minutes than because it was hard. Just time consuming, having to trim and press everytime you add a piece.
I used Fusions from Robert Kaufman fabrics. I love the fusions, but especially these ones, which I think are Fusion 11. I have about 20-25 FQs of them that I use in projects.
I'm really enjoying the intercacy and accuracy you can get with paper piecing but I don't think it will be my primary method still. I like the look and simplicity of regular piecing.

Working on that block meant I didn't finish the flimsy of Day in the Country which I had planned on finishing today but that's ok.

I should be studying for my exams later this week but really don't feel like it. I wrote two last week and am kinda crammed out but one of the exams I don't feel like I know a damn thing so I had better get cracking on it.
Bye for now!

Center

I got four of my blocks done. I think I'm going to just keep it smaller. I got hubby to hold the flimsy up for me so I could take a picture.

I don't have a lot of the peach and DH is on me about not buying more fabric, and since it's an older collection I'd have to go to ebay. So I think I'm going to add a border, bringing the secondary star into the border. I'm still doing the math, hoping I have enough peach. Right now the top is about 40". Adding about 6" to each side....should get to be about 52", which I guess is ok for a lap.

I've been so busy studying for exams. I have palliative care tomorrow. I'm so tired of books. I just want to QUILT. I'm really tired of not getting to do anything. :(

DD is bugging me to make her babies another quilt. She's 4 and the other days grabbed some of my fabrics, handed them to me and said "find blanket for baby!" She already has 2 for her dolls, but apparently the Care Bears need their own.
She really is my anchor when things get crazy. She really reminds me of what is important.

Found my camera

I found my camera. It was sitting next to my purse, which shouldn't have been where it was either.
I thought I'd share our first glimpse of spring. I saw these violets when taking the puppies on their potty break yesterday. When I found my camera I went again this afternoon to snap a pic.
Finally spring. And I'm pretty sure there is a heck of a lot of inspiration coming soon. Spring always seems to rejuvinate me.

Oh I wish I was more organized

Nicole over at Sister's Choice Quilts has shared wonderful pictures of her organized stash. I'm so envious of her ability to find everything, let alone find a place for it all.
I can't even begin to think how I could get my stash into some semblance of organization. I have fabric everywhere. UFOs and WIPs all over the place. This may have something to do with us being in an apartment. More likely is the fact that I am a hopelessly disorganized person. I have never been organized in my life, honestly I'm the type of person who really would lose their head if it wasn't attached.
I lose keys once a month at least, luckily only for a few hours, or days at the most. I can never find a pen even though I have about fifty thousand of them around.
Any attempts at neatness ends up in a worse mess than it started.
I can't even find my charger for my camera batteries and I've searched everywhere. So I've given up because, knowing me, I will stumble upon it in a day or two in some perfectly sensible place where I put it so it wouldn't get lost.

Oh well. Don't wish for what you cannot have. Find a way to live with what you do. And ignore DH when his less than subtle hints at my disorganization get annoying.

EQ

First off I love my EQ. Love it. It is so much fun to play with. I have EQ5 on my computer and if I can ever find the upgrade disk I will have EQ6. I bought it, had it on my old laptop. But since then we have moved and I have gotten a new laptop, and I cannot find the disk anywhere. I've looked, searched, and torn everything apart looking for it.
One thing I hate about EQ is the fabric yardage calculator. It doesn't work. It calculates WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY more fabric than you need. I mean yards more. Not an extra 1/4 or 1/2 yard but two or more yards more. Which is really frickin irritating. It pretty much defeats the purpose of the whole thing.
So I had to get out the trusty old graph paper to figure out the if I had enough of the walnut to make a lap quilt. The more I see the block, and I've made another one, the more I like it so I want one to curl up under. I'm still not sure but I think so. So today will be a day for cutting, and hoping.

Surprisingly, I did Well

Your Spelling is Good

You got 9/10 correct. Your spelling is generally pretty decent. You are prone to a few mistakes, but the mistakes you make are pretty forgivable.

How's Your Spelling?

When DD is away, Mama will Play

Little Bit went to grandma's for the night so I got out my fabrics and decided to just cut. So I cut and I sewed. And viola!
The flying geese...





Than it occured to me that I kinda need my center before I can use my geese so...




And I need another star...

Hmmmm....maybe one more? Yes lets add another star, with corner blocks...



And here is one of the puppies checking out the block. Probably looking for another quilt to steal as a bed.


Now I only need 3,5 or 7 more to make a quilt out of. Or maybe a table runner, I'd only need one more than...hmm and I have enough fabric to make a few placemats...
Off to fondle the fabric and debate myself.

Day in the Country

I have four fabrics from Moda's Day in the Country, one of Fig Tree Quilts lines, and I can't decide what to do with them. I'm thinking maybe some sort of blended quilt but I don't really love the ones I've seen.

I do have some of Moda's basics cream, which is Fig Tree cream, so it would probably work if I needed to add another fabric but it is a solid and I'm not crazy about solids. I was thinking of doing plain ole Sawtooth stars with the greens as the background and the walnut as the points...maybe the peach for the center and corners? Or use the green for the stars, the peach for the center and the walnut for background?
I'm going to have to find pictures online and import the fabrics into my EQ.
Which starts me on another though of I REALLY want my EQ6. I bought it and had it on my old laptop, but since the move and new laptop cannot find it anywhere. It makes me so sad :( I like EQ5 but 6 really is just that much better, that much more fluent. Oh well.

I think the fabrics are going to have to sit and stew for a bit before I figure out what I want to do.

All sorts of fun

I was so excited today. My quilt mags came today. After getting DD from school we were on our way up the elevator when I hopped off to check the mail and there they were! I was so happy. Little bit was staring at me like I'd lost my mind but oh well, she'll probably be thinking that for the next 20 years or so.


I've already devoured them and looking at making a few of the patterns. I really love Quilter's Home . It is so funny and fresh. I'd read it without any patterns.
I admit I'm a pattern whore...or should it be horder? naw whore sounds about right ;)....which is why I still get 'other' quilt mags. They rarely have much to interest me in terms of articles, though occassionally they do. And yes I do realize so many of the patterns are the same but I can't stop myself. I have more patterns than any twenty quilters could make in a lifetime, and so many are based on a fabric line that isn't in print anymore. Maybe one day I'll break myself but I doubt it.
For patterns I like BHG's American Patchwork and Quilting. DH got me a subscription for my b-day in January and I'm thrilled. I like using big blocks in quilts. I made a a quilt, ok a flimsy, for hubby using 22" blocks a year or two ago. If I ever get some $$ together I'll have it long armed for him...maybe an idea for his birthday in September.

I'm also super excited that Dandelion Girl is out. It's a new fabric line from Moda by my favorite designer Joanna from >Fig Tree Quilts.
I saw them on Fat Quarter Shop's website. Along with a hundred patterns for it. Which is my weakness. Kinda a good thing my quilting budget is so spent because now I'm not tempted to spend, and then OVERspend, and spend some more. I love the colours, which I can honestly say about all of Fig Tree's lines. I LOVE, LOVE them. And they go with all of their other lines so I can mix and match and incorporate my left overs into new quilts. It makes a very happy Cara :)

I admit to being a McQuilter.....actually I have a real problem with that term.; t implies that for some reason my quilts are cheap and subpar. I do do original quilts. But I also like being able to just sit back and enjoy following someone else's direction...and **GASP** even follow fabric choices on occassion!
And I likes it that way. So :P.
Ok done ranting on that topic.