DC in the Spring

Jefferson Memorial through the Cherry Blossoms, Tidal Basin

The Crowd Gathers, 7 a.m.

Zen Like

Fairy Wood

Tidal Basin, Round the Bend

Because after Monday in Boston, I could use some pretty, some happy.

I took these photos one week earlier, on a business trip to Washington.

XO Terez

Giving up Amy for Nigella

Plus Quilt Fail

Living Room Design Board

Giving Up Amy for Nigella

Baby Oven Miracle

Late Winter Sunset

This weekend I made a grand attempt to layout a Plus Sign Quilt (see Jenni B's tutorial here) but failed miserably. I need a design wall--the floor isn't cutting it. I have a couple of sets of Amy Butler's "Love" charm packs but I don't think the prints play all that well together--the prints are fun but they are a little too big for the five-inch format and there isn't enough negative space. Meh. Maybe if I mix in some solids it will go better. Halfway through the layout I threw up my hands and moved to the kitchen where I took on Nigella Lawson's Dense Chocolate Loaf. It is so, so good the first day and divine the second day. The moist loaf is really more like a cross between a pudding, brownie and cake and it gets better with age like gingerbread. 

XO Terez         

Florida or Bust

Why the Chicken Crossed the Road

 

Investigating

Lucky from Africa

Lessons in Rummikub

Key West Kitty

Sunset Show

Higg's Beach

Pats Fans By-the-Sea

This Evening's Sunset

The View From Apt 6

The enjoyment of this evening's sunset was heightened by:

:A double long chat with Mamacat (with a surprise chime in from HH)

:A spritzer

:A good mini-run

:The last of the bolognese

:A satisfyingly successful day at the office

:A brainstorm about a new hanging that will be sewn, soon

:Savoring last piece of chocolate sent via UPS from the Universe

:Anticipation for things to come

:Thankfulness for the way things are in this very moment

XO TEREZ

Half Square Triangle: Fussy Cut DIY Template

Fussy Half-Square Triangle

This morning I popped out of bed with an idea of a quilt I wanted to cut up. It was 6:30. I had today off. Why the rush? Most of the fabrics I wanted to use were pre washed, but three important pieces were not. And I don't have laundry in my building. And it was 16 degrees outside.


Too the bathtub I went!

To the Tub

I tossed in half-yards of some Lizzy House, Amy Butler and Sandy Gervais. Woolite. Warmish water (to help with the pre-shrink).

No dryer? No problem! The radiators were on and toasty warm. A fan helped circulate the air. About 90 minutes later, I was in business.

Dryer Dilemma: Solved!

I was ready to cut. And cut. And cut.

Peach and Pink Palette

When I got to the Sandi Henderson Meadowsweet, I knew I wanted to be verrrry careful. For this quilt I've challenged myself to tackle the half square triangle block. For most sewers, it's pretty basic. I'm intimidated by the bias sewing and a bunch of other jazz.  And I want to control exactly what appears on the triangle when the seams are sewn and pressed. Because you lose a half inch of the square, diagonally down the middle, when you sew it up, it's not as easy as imagining the square folded in half to get what you want.

"I need a custom ruler," I think to myself.

Well of course, I'll just make one!

Do It Yourself

First I traced out a 5 inch square on some template plastic. Then I drew dotted lines down the diagonal center, both directions. I wanted to know what part of the image would be lost by the center seam, to I drew a line 1/4 of an inch from the center line on either side.

Seam Allowances

I then drew a 1/4 inch boarder around the whole square--so I know exactly what fabric will be lost in the other seams.  I traced out my template with water soluble fabric marker like this:

Tracing the Square

See how the solid red diagonal line goes through the center of the flower? That's what I wanted. The top left triangle, when matched with a solid, will press open and look like a sun rising. That does mean the bottom right triangle will look different when pressed open, but that's ok. I'll save it for another project.

Bordering Brilliant!

So now my half yard of "vintage paisley" looks like Swiss cheese--if Swiss cheese was orderly and had sharp cube shaped bubbles. But it worked! Stay tuned.

XO Terez

Old Shale

Old Shale Stitch

For as long as I've been stitching, I've wanted to make a chevron or ripple blanket. I have tried, many, many times to learn to crochet properly because I thought it was the only way to make one of these fascinating yarn-stash-busters:

Great Grandma Ripple Blanket Modeled by Anna Cat Bebe

But behold, the knitting pattern Old Shale:

Hail the Old Shale

This is my first attempt. I read about it on Ravelry. I knew I could do it--I knew it.

The pattern is so easy--it's just a repeat of four simple rows:
Cast on 20 stitches
Row One: K 20
Row Two: K 1, P 18, K1
Row Three: K 1, [K2 Tog] 3 times, [K1, YO] 6 times, [K2 Tog] 3 times, K1
Row Four: K 20

That's it! It's just the right combination of mindless knitting and purling for three rows and one row of increasing and decreasing. It's worked in multiples of 18--I added the single knit stitch at the beginning and ending of each row to help decrease curling. I watched a very helpful YouTube video by iknitwithcatfur (??) that helped me get the groove going.

Corner Curve

I have 840 yards of Malabrigo Worsted Noviembre yarn that I'm thinking of doing a tiny shawl or wrap with in this pattern:

Malabrigo Noviembre Test Shale

I knitted up a test swatch this afternoon and I think it will work nicely.

But first: I must finish Christmas sewing. There are not enough hours in the day.

XO!
TEREZ

Cotton Constellation

Cotton Constellation

My little quilt galaxy is complete!

This weekend I completed the final two "test blocks" of the Texas Star template and pinned them to my shades in the back room for a colorful constellation. A few things I learned:

Allowances

The seam allowance contraption was incredibly helpful at keeping the seams to 1/4". Training wheels, I suppose, but well worth it.

Get to the Point

Sewing on the bias is tricky. Much easier if the fabric is starched and precisely pinned. I also learned you can burn starch, and in turn, burn the fabric. Following the written instructions are important; someone took the time to write and illustrate them for a reason. On the last two blocks (the green and blue and blue and yellow two, on the left) my seams were much straighter and the blocks went together a lot easier when I followed the pressing, pinning and sewing directions.
 

Reality

I am a messcat. This isn't news, but I had barely finished trimming, pinning, sewing and installing before my work table was a complete mess. My next two projects are scattered about, waiting impatiently for me to get on with it.

Three Wishes

The experiment was a delight! Now I'm ready for the real thing, with some favorite fabric pieces. Stay tuned!

XO Terez

Walk to Work Wednesday

A Little Birdie Told Me

Golden Path

Between the Rails

Asphalt Applique

Renegade Bunch

The leaves have finally started to change but it feels more like the tail end of summer than the middle of fall--upper 60s today and plenty of sunshine. The steam radiators in my apartment don't know the difference: still clunking and spurting out heat despite the balmy air. Such a treat in November makes me wonder if we'll pay for it in February: a squirrel is already trying to build a den in my ceiling and it's not even freezing at night yet.

XO Terez

Golden Afternoon

Golden Afternoon Selvege

The Chez Terez studio's state of affairs has been in a sad state indeed.  My workroom, lucky enough to contain four Northwest facing windows, is flooded with full-sun from June to September and it's simply to hot to work in there. Instead it has become a repository for every craft supply I've bought or scavenged and after a terrible attempt to move large pieces of furniture by myself yesterday, it looked like this:

Buried Treasure

I was in the middle of moving that metal drawer of paper crafts and I was too lazy to move the Scrabble dice game to safety, and well, you can see how successful that was.

Solo Stretching

Mid-clean spree, I decided to put the extra leaf in my work table. Alone. I re-enacted it in the photo above to give you the full experience.

After four hours, the place was back in business. Tonight every craft item is sorted and with its proper neighbors. Stamps with stamp pads, fabric sorted and folded, beads and pliers stacked neatly, printmaking inks stored properly, rulers hung on the wall. It is a thing of beauty.

I started working on a star quilt:

Start of Star Quilt

I still don't have a proper design wall. I found a piece of white felt, some clothespins and a spare curtain rod and rigged this up:

Star Quilt Test

Which worked great until I knocked into it while rooting around in the closet:

Star Quilt Fail

That only strengthened my resolve. What good is one star quilt when I could be making three at the same time? But forget the design wall, I'm back to basics: a freshly made bed will do just as well to test the layout:

Star Quilt Redo

Stay tuned. I should have a spectacular constellation to show and tell next week.

XO TEREZ

Kitty Roll

Oh! To be a kitty in a pool
of late summer sunshine.

Hrmph. I'm a bit hot so I'll start
to think about rolling over.

Oh bother, I think I might be stuck.

Er, ah, almost got it!

Ahhh. Sweet shade.