it's a house!

Here is my progress on House #8. I really want to turn this one around but since I'm only working on it in the evenings it's going to be slow going.

Here is my new start for my train rides. It's the Victorian Memories Chaise Lounge from Cat's Whiskers. I'm not sure if they plan on doing a new one for this year's Nashville Market but we should know soon! :-) I was going over last year's blog entries for timing and we are a week or two away from starting to see what's coming out. I'm going to stick to my plan on stitching from my stash for the most part this year. Of course my Loose Feathers are always an exception and if Cat's Whiskers puts out another chair in the series I will purchase that also. It's going to kill me though to stand on the sidelines and watch every one else buy all the goodies! LOL!

Thanks for all your kind words about not only my quilting but my oak cabinet. It generated a ton of comments and questions and I'll address some now.

With regards to the exchange my family does each year it started out with the five of us kids and my parents taking turns to make one gift. Several years ago my dad never completed his turn and we no longer require the parents to make something for us but they still get a gift. Somewhere along the line my brother in laws uncle got included so we are obligated to make six gifts. This year is the end of the current rotation and I'm last so this year it's my turn. We are going to take a vote at the end of the year if we are going to continue to do it. I'm pretty sure we are going to stop for a year or two and this will be a change for us to stop included the extra person. At this point I'm planning on stitching six Laura J. Perin quilt counted needlepoint designs and I'll put them into boxes. I have already purchased two patterns and plan to get going by the end of the month.

Now as for my quilting all I see when I look at it are the part that don't line up! But we are always harder on ourselves aren't we? I do most of my quilts when I can by chain stitching a section at a time. So like something suggested when I do geese, I do one side, cut the extra fabric then iron it and then do the other side. If I have a ton of geese like I did for this one, I will even break it down more to give myself a break. There are five different color ways in this quilt and I did each one separate. I really think this method helps with getting those points correct. Also when I piece two pieces of fabric together I always remember that the thread and fold does take up space so I piece short of a 1/4 of an inch. I use a very high quality thin thread from Presencia - it's a 60/3. I did a Harriet Hargrave class a couple of years ago and we spent quite a bit of time talking about tricks to get everything together as best we can. I believe I recall her saying she actually worked with the folks at Presencia to develop this thread. It makes a difference believe me. Not so much in large scale quilts but when you are dealing with a lot of small pieces those 1/32 of an inch add up by the time you are finished with the entire quilt. The thread only comes in four colors at that weight and I like to use the neutral grey the best and I buy it by the large cone. I even use it to quilt with. The stuff is amazing. When I first was at Harriett's I never thought I would get so excited about thread. :-) But this stuff does really help with getting back your seam allowances. It's all I use now. I also use this really cool fork pin - it helps from the butted seams shifting apart while you are sewing.

And of course the photo of the pugs generated some comments. It's not a case of Molly and Aoife not liking each other it's more like they just don't hang out much together. Molly is a bit of a loner and Aoife and Clancy are always glued at the hip so Aoife never really seeks out Molly's company.