Good riddance, July...

Oh man, July sucked. "Sucked the Big Wazoo," as I like to say. It started out OK, but then took a major dive toward the end of the month, and I am elated that it's finally over.

Things I learned in July:

• July 23 was the rainiest calendar day in the recorded history of Chicago (8.68 inches!)
• 4" of it ended up in the basement of my building.
• Five days later, another big storm and more water; Mother Nature has a wicked sense of humor.
• The 140-year old drainage system in my neighborhood was just as surprised as we were by the amount of water both of these storms produced.
• Despite being warned, some people are stupid enough to store mattresses (and other valuable items, like rugs) on the floor of a basement with a 140-year old drainage system lurking fifteen feet away.
• Drywall sucks up an amazing amount of water.
• Wet drywall starts to smell after three days and needs to come out.
• Wet mattresses smell worse than wet drywall.
• The term "bio-scrub" involves moving and wiping down a LOT of stuff.
• Some people are too lazy to throw their own crap out.
• $80,000 of drying equipment running 24/7 + 12 air conditioners cranked in 92 degree heat = a blown buss breaker.
• Commercial grade buss breakers are extremely hard to come by on a Sunday afternoon.
• Ten hours without power makes some people very cranky.
• Power surges can fry things like transformers for the building's buzzer system and the blower motor for a brand new water heater.
• Foundation repairs are really expensive.
• I don't do well on two hours sleep three days in a row.
• Multiple shots of espresso make my knees shake.
• Being forced to take charge of things when all one wants to do is hide in one's condo and sew makes a person very surly. 
• Being Condo Board President has NO perks whatsoever.

Snowflakes in July, Part 2...

After I took a good look at my last post, I remember why this project became a UFO in the first place:  it was too dark. For me, anyway. At the time, I wasn't sure what to do about that and didn't have time to speculate on a solution (other things to work on, of course), so it got packed up and launched into the black hole of UFOs in my kitchen studio.

When I saw the whole thing together last week, as happy as I was to have it complete, it was still bugging me. So I brightened it up a bit a couple borders, found a cute backing (Smores, M & My Sisters for Moda), and quilted it. Bound with a dark plum solid found on sale at Ikea for $2 a yard, I think it frames it out very nicely.

I knew if I stopped at any point, it would head back toward the UFO pile, so I forged ahead -- gotta keep that momentum going, right?

Much better! And another finish for July!

Productive procrastination strikes again!

Pulling rows off "Not-So-Plain Spoken" and picking apart 24 blocks was such a daunting task that it drove me to be productive somewhere else. I'd feel guilty about not taking up my seam ripper right away if I were, say, spending that time playing Angry Birds or drinking beers out on the deck, but in this case I just went and crossed another top off my list and freed up some valuable bin space.

This UFO was sitting around so long, I literally had to blow the dust off of it. All the blocks were completed, just waiting to be put into rows and turned into a top.

"Snowflakes in July," made mostly with Winter Joy fabrics (Sue Zipkin, Clothworks).

This is my second project using this fantastic cutting technique. Even though it took years to actually get this top assembled, I think it took maybe ten minutes, max, to cut up the squares. I'd recommend trying it just for the thrill of instant gratification you get. Just take her advice and use starch -- it makes everything much more stable in the long run.

I'm on a roll! At this rate, I could have all my UFO's done by Labor Day!

Another finish, sort of...

Well, I got all the rows sewn together this weekend, and the top looks really nice -- especially with my yellow walls!

This top took me out of my comfort zone, mixing colors that I normally wouldn't use at all, let alone put together. I've never been a big fan of coral, but there it is, smack dab in the middle of my quilt top. I don't use a lot of browns, either, but this project has given me a newfound appreciation for Kona Espresso, especially in combination with the buttery yellows and blues -- I'll definitely be using that one again. And Moss -- it really popped against the yellows and blues as well, something I didn't expect but was really pleased to see.

It gets a little yellow-happy and checkerboardy brown in places and muddy in a couple other spots, but I think with this pattern that's difficult to avoid. The quilting dance (rearrange, step back, squint, rearrange, step back, squint) gets a little old after a while, and at some point you just have to tell yourself to STOP or the dance will go on forever. I was trying to avoid any concentration of really dark or light through the narrower strips (which are much more noticeable than any in the wider rows), and I managed to do that pretty well. I ended up using 17 or 18 different fabrics, but it would have been easier to achieve better distribution and balance if I had used a few more.

The cattail backing fabric was the inspiration for this palette. This was the original pull, all Kona, with a few more blues, yellows and lighter aquas added later to brighten things up a bit.

Kona Ice Frappe, Raffia, Lemon, Candy Green, Mocha, Curry, Parfait, Wheat, Moss, Brown, Periwinkle, Old French, Espresso.

The only problem with it? My math was off, so it's two rows longer than I need and one column short. So I'll be spending a little time over the next few days with my seam ripper.

Then I have to decide whether I give it away or keep it for myself!

On to the next...

Remember this project? I began this quilt top in Michigan, and of course didn't finish piecing it (or even get close, I was still obsessively arranging blocks) by the time the renters arrived for the summer, so I pinned all the pieces onto a queen-sized sheet, folded it up, and brought it back home...where it sat atop the stash boxes, a cruel daily reminder of my failure to finish it. Archie claimed it for a cat bed for a while, then I think he got stuck a few times by the pins and found somewhere less hostile to sleep.

I pieced parts of a few rows at some point, maybe a year ago, but mostly it went back and forth to Michigan as a "good travel project." It returned most recently in May, where I didn't even bother to take it out of the car.

Sorry, bad photo -- I'm still trying to figure out how to compensate for indoor lighting.

In the spirit of completion and straightening up my kitchen, I have gone back to it. Some of the pieces were so scrunched up, the only thing that's going to take the wrinkles out is a good washing after it's finished. After lots of ironing and some more obsessive rearranging to get the color balance, I can at least say most of the rows are sewn, and I've regained a small amount of enthusiasm for the project.

One by one, they're gettin' done!

Happy Birthday, Mom!

Glamour Mom, 1947.

This is my favorite picture of my mother, a few weeks before her wedding, all carefree and glowing and totally in love with the man she would spend her life with. I'm pretty sure she's admiring her engagement ring.

When I look at this picture, I can see all of her children in this buoyant young woman:  her raven hair went to her oldest daughter, those mile-long legs to the next, her nose and eyes to her son. I would have loved her skinny genes, but those went almost exclusively to her third girl, who's never weighed more than 105 pounds in her life. And me? I mostly look like my Dad, but I think I lucked out and got her spirit, that nothin's-gonna-stop-me attitude that's kept her going strong for almost 90 years. I'm hoping it'll keep me going just as long.

Gaining momentum...

Man oh man, finishing things feels good!

Maybe there's some weird productivity gas seeping into my air conditioning vents, or maybe I'm just tired of having all these piles of partially-finished quilts sitting around, but since I got back to Chicago last week I've been going a little nuts here. I guess it could be the heat, or the humidity, or the fact that I have company coming next week. Whatever the reason, I'm running with it.

Archie admires "Spare Change." Or maybe he thinks there's food on that stool.

I tried to remember when I first started this quilt, and I couldn't. I know when I dug the strips out of the UFO pile and started piecing it, and when I started quilting it, but can't for the life of me recall when the idea for this quilt was born. I think it's safe to say W was President -- and even safer to say it was during his first term.

It was almost exactly 11 months ago when I began quilting this. And it was about ten and a half months ago when I ran out of lime green thread...and couldn't find any more to match. I had about 4" left to quilt on either side of the top, and in frustration I threw it into the Duffle Bag of Doom and moved on to something else.

While I was in Michigan last month, something miraculous happened:  I FOUND THE GREEN THREAD, four spools of it -- all of which came home with me.

And now it's DONE. Amen and hallelujah, let the fireworks begin!

Or maybe we should all just take a nap.