Win Some, Lose Some.

I'm sewing the binding on my Mom's bird quilt.

She was really excited to see it and came over to check it out.

She loves it, and thinks it is just wonderful. 

Great stuff!

I received this beautiful Amaryllis for Christmas, and like all pink Amaryllis's, it was very slow to open, but it had two stalks and twelve blooms. And like other pink ones, it was VERY tall. I have a special stake to hold it upright.

However, gravity rules.

Mom's Bird Quilt, Quilted

 

I picked up my Mom's bird quilt from Janet-Lee. Here is a closeup shot of the quilting. 

Here's another picture. I really love the quilting.

I've added the binding to the quilt, and will be finishing it over the next few days.

My mother is going to be very happy with this.

If you want to make your own birds, you can get my tutorial here.

A Bigger Bird

As you can see I figured out the picture thing.

Here are some quick updates to my last post.

We got just over a foot of snow. That's the easy part. The hard part is the low temperatures for the next week will hover right around zero, and the highs won't get above 24F for another week.

The New England Patriots won the AFC Championship and will play in the Super Bowl in a couple of weeks. Didn't see that coming last August.

I took Cat's quilt out for beauty shots, but it was windy so I didn't get many pictures.  It's a really pretty quilt and it's going to make Cat very happy.

The big snowstorm caused the Y to postpone the start of the Tai Chi class till next week. Works for me!

In my plans to make an extension of my Liberated Birds tutorial, I have made a bird twice as big as the "standard" bird, and with my hand next to it you can see how it is bigger. I've got lots of plans for the new tutorial, and it's going to take some time.

I do want to remind everyone that all my tutorials on my Etsy shop are 25% off until the end of January, so now is a great time to buy them.

Update

 I've been working on updating all my tutorials and my presence on Facebook, and I'm almost finished. There's a lot I don't understand about FB, but I'm working on it.

My computer had an update and I have to do a bit of magic to get my photos show up, and I'm tired of wrestling with computers, so this post won't have any pictures until I can figure it out. The good thing is that I'm posting SOMETHING!

So... what's up with me?

Like everyone I'm keeping an eye on the big snowstorm that should be hitting this weekend. It's a bit early but our weather guys say we might get as much as a foot of snow and the temperatures will be well below normal. I'm in New Hampshire. I'm stocked up.

As you may remember, I am a New England Patriots fan. We have won six Super Bowls and the last few years have been difficult. This year we all expected to be rebuilding - but we never expected to be fighting for the top spot in the AFC! So I'll be watching that.

I never made it outside to take beauty shots of Cat's quilt, and given the cold temperatures expected for the next that might not happen any time soon.

I've been going to the Arthritis Swim Class three times a week since the end of October, and Chair Yoga once a week since then and I am amazed at my improved flexibility and balance. There is a Tai Chi class starting next week, and I've already signed up. Who'd have thought bouncing around in a heated pool with water up to your chest would help so much?

I'll be meeting with the gals at the Night Owl Quilting Studio in the coming weeks about classes I will teach there this year, so I am working on my presentation to them.

AND... drumroll please...

After many requests I will be writing a sort of "Bird Extras" tutorial that will cover making tiny birds, very big birds, hummingbirds, flamingos and anything else I can think of or anything anybody suggests that I think is a good idea. Don't hold your breath just yet, I have to work it out in my head first before I put anything down on paper.

In my continuing effort to pare down my stash I am figuring out what my next quilt should be. In the meantime I would twenty bobbins, so when I figure it out I'm good to go.

I have discovered Bookish on PBS, and Ludwig on Britbox, both of which I enjoyed very much.

That's it for now. When I get over getting annoyed with my computer, there will be pictures.

Cat's Quillt is Finished!

 Cat's quilt is finished. Cat is her nickname, by the way. I first met her 18 years ago when she was two years old. I am her "honorary auntie." 

She's moving into her own apartment soon, and I wanted to get this right out to her to enjoy so I machine stitched the binding in place. It's black, and the thread was black, so it was much faster and easier by machine, but at my age it's getting harder to hand sew dark things.

I'll take this out for beauty shots when the weather permits. We've had some fresh snow and I think it would be fun to see this on the snow.

Cat's Quilt

 

I picked up Cat's quilt from Janet-Lee yesterday. This is a quilt for a hip 20 year old girl. She chose the colors.

Here's a close up of the quilting.

A bigger detail shot.

I've got the binding all ready made for this, so I should get to it soon.

I'm doing a lot of behind the scenes work to protect my tutorials. The best thing I can tell anyone is to purchase my tutes on my Etsy shop. That is the ONLY place I sell them. One of the advantages is if you have an Etsy account and your copy of a tutorial gets corrupted or damaged, or lost, or your computer or device dies, you can simply log into your Etsy account and download it again. It will ALWAYS be there for you! Pretty cool, huh?

I have to set up a professional Facebook page and that's taking up some valuable brain cells. Since this whole scammer/stealing experience is causing me sleepless nights, it's taking a bit longer than I'd like. Bear with me. That's on my To-Do list for today.

Bird's the Word

 

I'm going to have to beef up my presence on Facebook if I want to combat the spammers who stole my tutorial and direct readers to my legitimate sales location on Etsy. To that end I'll be posting a lot of bird stuff over the next few days. If you do Facebook, go over and follow me, please. I'm Lynne Tyler over there.

***Update: Apparently I've got to set up a Professional profile in Facebook. I find it incredibly confusing and it's taking some time. Please bear with me. I SO appreciate your support. 

I've also decided to update the bird tutorial with a few little hints my in-class students have suggested, so I'm working on that. Also, Susan suggested I write a sort of Birds, Part Two tutorial that includes instructions on making hummingbirds and flamingos, and other bird variations, so I'm working on that too.

Thanks for your support. And if you want to buy any of my tutorials, they are 25% off for the month of January, go to my Etsy Shop, Patchery Menagerie, here.

Pizzazz is a Flimsy at Last!

 

I added a border to the Pizzazz quilt. Now it's a flimsy. I'm really happy with it.

Scam Alert

 

As you all know, I sell my tutorials on Etsy. I sell them nowhere else. If you find a website that purports to sell my bird tutorial that isn't Etsy, then you are being scammed. 

Somebody is posting a link on Facebook selling my tutorials for fifteen bucks with a warning the price is soon to be raised to twenty. THIS IS A LIE. My tutorials on Etsy sell for no more than $12 USD (Except for the letters tutorial). IN FACT, right now I have a 25% off sale on ALL my tutorials.

I don't know who is doing this. I have tried to contact them, but the telephone number as well as the web URL is bogus. Somebody is stealing from me. I've heard from several folks that this has happened, but I'm not having any luck getting whoever this is to cease and desist.

If you see any link anywhere where this is happening, leave a comment saying this is FAKE.

Thanks.

If you want to buy Lynne's Liberated Birds tutorial, click this link.

Pizzazz, All fixed and finished

 

Here I have circled the blocks that were wrong. I knew about the three at the lower left and only one at the upper right.

In this picture, these are at the blocks at the upper right. I have tried to make notes on the blocks that are wrong.

Here I have fixed all the mistakes, and added an extra vertical row at the far right. Now the flimsy is 60" wide, which is the width I prefer.

Almost Perfect

The flimsy Pizzazz, is complete.

I think I counted about 40 unique fabrics before I got confused. I really like it.

After I put it back up on the design wall I sat back and looked at it.

And found four mistakes.

Oops.

Three I will fix, but one I shall leave as it is. And I'm not telling you where they are. 

Oh well.

Next up: winding bobbins.

 

Where & How

 

My Rail Fence quilt is made according to Sujata Shah's instructions in her book, Cultural Fusion Quilts, which is still in print and available at quilt shops, and many online places, including Amazon.

It was Sujata's technique of cutting pieces with gentle curves that let me to this. I love the technique and have used it several times, including Lightning in the Night Sky, Waltzing Matilda and Carnelian.

Sujata suggests "gentle" curves in her book, but I rather take that to the extreme. I like them really cuckoo and extreme. As always, YMMV (Your Mileage May Vary), but I think the technique makes much more interesting quilts.

Here is the quilt so far. The left half is all sewn together. The right half all the blocks are sewn into rows, but I haven't put them together yet.

One friend thinks this has a lot of Pizzazz, and I thought that was a great name until somebody else suggested Shockwave, which I think I like better!

Incidentally, I have updated my profile picture. This is what I really look like now, with longer hair!

Ready, Set, Sew!

I've done a lot of tinkering on this. You'll have to enlarge the photo to look more closely, but I have worked hard to ensure that the same fabric does not touch each other throughout the quilt. It was quite an undertaking. After a lot of work, this is what I will sew together.

 

I don't sew a whole long row of 14 blocks together. I sew half of it. It's easier (for me) to sew two big chunks together rather than do long rows of 14 blocks, which is about 56 inches long. In the strip above, there are seven blocks, and 14 unique fabrics.

As we all know, a design tightens up when sewn together. Here are seven rows of 7 blocks each. This is looking really good.

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Fourteen blocks equals 56 inches wide and I like my couch quilts to be 60 inches wide so I have set down an extra block at the far left edge of each the top ten rows shown above. I'm not 100% sure I'll add those extra blocks. I'll make that decision later.

My pal Cherie says this quilt has a lot of "pizzazz," and indeed it does. I think she has named this quilt.

Moving Along

 

I figured out the pattern for this quilt design and worked out the easiest way to finish the design of the quilt.

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I made an assortment of blocks. I had them on the recliner,

the table near my design wall,

and the stepladder.

I've covered the design wall with blocks and while the pattern is complete, now it's time for some tinkering and fine tuning to get this really humming.

And yes, I know this is crazy.