Good Friday, indeed...

"Holy Good Friday, Batman, "Baltimore Rhapsody"

has four outer borders and corners!"  

(Those corners aren't quite finished, but they are attached...)

It's not quite a top yet, but it should be by Easter Sunday.  I think I will add something else above the F clef "hearts" because I don't think the corners are strong enough...more flowers, or maybe some musical notes.  This music quilt has no music notes...weird!

Thank you to everyone for the helpful comments concerning the arrangement of the blocks.  It was so difficult to make that final commitment, but it is done now.  

Designing by the seat of your pants, thinking about each block and not thinking about the final quilt, certainly made that final choice more difficult...balancing overall shape, color, angle and size of instruments, scattering of birds, etc.

I need to finish appliqueing the corners, decide how much to trim off the outside, and finally top stitch around the edges...THEN comes the basting, YIPPEE!!  I am so eager to start hand quilting this sucker!

I am also considering appliqueing tiny initials and the the date like I did on my Civil War Bride quilt.  I love how charming that little detail looks on antique quilts, I just need to figure out where so it doesn't disturb the overall balance or stick out too much. 
  

Between this project, Holy Week, and trying not to be nominated for "Worst Wife and Mom of the Year," I have not answered many comments lately.  Sorry!  I will get to each and every one at some point.  Thank you for your patience.  Your participation has made this journey so much more enjoyable for me...actually tolerable at some low-spirit times.  Thank you for hanging in there with me!

Happy Easter, Happy Spring, Happy Passover, Happy Spring Break...oh, Happy Everything!

In stitches,
Teresa  :o)

Winners and the 40-hour road trip...

First things first, thank you so much for your sweet congratulations and hilarious comments about Downton Abbey.

Between blog comments and emails, here's a tally of the popularity of character mentions from this favorite BBC/PBS Masterpiece Theater presentation:

Branson - 6
Carson - 9
Matthew - 6
Lady Sybil - 6
Lady Mary - 9
Thomas - 1
Dowager Countess Violet - 19
Countess Cora - 1
Ms. Hughes - 7
Ms. Pattmore - 2
Isobel (Matthew's mum) - 1
Lord Grantham - 4
Lady Edith - 5
Bates - 4
Anna - 7

I love them ALL, but I am really trying to figure out a way that Branson and Lady Edith will get together, or maybe Branson and Lady Mary(?), Branson and the Dowager(??), Ms. Hughes and Carson(???), the Dowager and Carson (????).  Come on, Season Four! 

I think we all would like to by spunky like the Dowager some day...

Using the Random Number Generator, our 2 winners of the Downton Abbey T-shirts are:

BJ Elder and Barb. 

Congratulations!  I wish I had a T-shirt for everyone!  

It seems like a long time until Season Four of Downton will air.  I have been re-watching earlier seasons while appliqueing my long borders - what was I thinking when I made them so busy?

I was scanning through the freebies on NetFlix yesterday afternoon while in my hand applique sweat shop (temporary nickname for the Quilt Cave...) and found the BBC drama "North and South" in 4 episodes.  It was FABULOUS, so if you are suffering from a Downton Abbey hangover, watch "North and South" as a little "hair of the dog," so to speak.  (new crush: Richard Armitage...sigh...)

Now on to the "Thelma and Louise (minus Louise) AQS Lancaster Quilt Show Trip" - this post REALLY should have been called "How NOT to go to a fabulous quilt show."  Lots of things I would have done differently:

1)  I made the round trip in less than 40 hours (and that includes more than 14 hours of driving, part of the return trip in the middle of the night with snow...).  I had a limited window of time to make the trip.  Next time I will cancel something so I can spend more time seeing everything and HAVING FUN!

2)  DON'T GO ALONE!!  Quilt shows are always more fun WITH someone else.  I should have at least made some firm plans to try and meet up with blog buddies (or kidnapped people here for the road trip).

I was looking for a couple of familiar faces, which I never saw, but I did bump into the same woman 9 times...it was almost as if we were stalking each other.  If I had seen her in Amish country, I probably would have been really freaked out.

I mean, seriously...if a person spent too much on patterns in one particular vendor booth, and no girlfriend was there to see it, did money really exchange hands??

3)  Don't try to see EVERYTHING (including some of Pennsylvania Amish Country) in one day...it is impossible and will just make you crazy. 

4)  Don't gush when talking to pattern stars like Lori Smith when purchasing patterns in person at their booth(s).  She was WAY busy (she is very popular and was working the booth solo) and they will NEVER remember that you met briefly over a VISA machine.

5)  Make sure to get that long overdue hair cut before leaving town...you never know when the camera will be on you (AQS did a video interview with me...should appear on YouTube QuiltTV at some point - if anyone finds the interview, after you've stopped laughing, send me a link!).

6)  Don't try and take your own picture of you and your quilt...you will just look pathetic and it won't work.  Ask some nice person to take one for you.  

But remember to HAND THEM YOUR CAMERA when you make your request, LOL.  I, sheepishly, asked a person, and they took one with THEIR camera and continued on to the next quilt.  I'm sure she got home and had a good laugh about THAT one...
  
7)  Commit to the trip sooner, stay closer to the venue, and don't try and find the absolute cheapest room in the tri-state area...Firty-two bucks did get a bed and working shower in York, PA, but it wasn't too great as a place to applique overnight before the show.

8)  Keep your tool purchases focused on what is needed to finish a current project.  I found this neat tool to help adjust the tension in my hoop (and save my fingers) and a pure graphite marking system for preparing my "Baltimore Rhapsody" quilt top for hand quilting.  

I also bought some 50-cent batting squares from the Hobbs booth so I can make my final batting decision in the next couple of days.

9)  And finally, don't get upset when your quilting buddy finds new people to hang out with while you are gone.  Find a prize or two to take home and share...

In stitches,
Teresa   :o)

"All Around the Town" takes a prize at AQS Lancaster...

The verdict is in..."All Around the Town" takes a 3rd place ribbon in the "Wall Quilt: Hand Quilted" category at the AQS International Quilt Show in Lancaster, PA. Yee-haw!

The show opens this morning and the winners were supposed to be available by 8:40 AM online.  I have not located them yet.  I actually got a nice phone call late yesterday afternoon...that is the witching hour in our house for robo-calls and unknown people selling stuff and asking for money.  

I did not recognize the phone number and ALMOST DIDN'T PICK UP!  I'm glad I did, because it was a courtesy call letting me know about my quilt taking a prize.  Andrea of AQS wanted to know if and when I was coming to the show to set up some sort of interview (???).  Then came the blood-curdling scream as I hung up...

I will be at the show on Friday...anyone else going on Friday??

To celebrate, let's have a give-away!  It's been way too long since  we did that.  I have two beautiful, brand-spanking-new Downtown Abbey T-shirts, both are red and size 2X (I thought they might shrink a little...).

3 rules:

1)  You have to be (or become) a follower of Fabric Therapy to participate.

2)  You have to tell us who your favorite Downton Abbey character is and why (if you have not watched Downton yet, just pick a good, British, uppercrusty name, and make up a reason you just LOVE, LOVE, LOVE that person...).

3)   Your comment must be time and date-stamped BEFORE midnight EST Friday night, March 15.  I will post winners on Monday.

Have a great weekend and maybe I will bump into you at the Lancaster show...I will be the tall, large woman with a #@*&-eating grin on my face...

In stitches,
Teresa  :o)

Ready to take the plunge...

The first appliqued outer border strip for "Baltimore Rhapsody" is all stitched up and ready to plunge in water to soak the glue out.

I prepped more than I had time to work on in Alabama...big surprise.  (I always pack quilting projects like I am going to a deserted island for a week...I WISH!)

I am liking the swags with the holes in them.  They take a little longer to applique down due to the additional edges to secure down.

The effort is worth it.  The last swag border I did (on the wall above the couch) poofs out, caused by the compression of the batting from all the hand quilting that surrounds the swags.  That has always bugged me.  Since I will be hand quilting inside these little swag cut-outs or vents, my swags won't be poofy.  YIPPEE!

Three more outer borders to go...

In stitches,
Teresa  :o)

Some outer border resolution...

OK, so I have finally made some sort of decision about the outer borders of "Baltimore Rhapsody."  I will stitch one of the border strips, and see if it is truly what I want.

I will use F clefs in the corners, in a heart motif.  THAT I will figure out after I get the four long strips done.  I am really liking the swags with the holes in them.  The G clefs are a little intense...and I have to make 24 of them...oy!  Fortunately, I have 148 leftover purple circles, so I hopefully don't have to make more of them!

In stitches,
Teresa  :o)

Last Christmas present finished...

I am no painter, but one of my sisters asked me to embellish a potty stool for my little nephew with a train theme.  Not my strong point.

After much procrastination (and too much hand applique), I finally got it done.

Am I the last person to finish a present for Christmas 2012?!?  It's in the mail, Lainie...

In stitches,
Teresa  :o)

On the Road Again...

"All Around the Town" is going to one more show before it gets retired to a wall in my house.  Just like "Banana Joe," the winner of the recent big dog show, it is time for this quilt to relax and just hang around the house.

I shipped it off for the AQS - Lancaster Quilt Show by way of Paducah, KY and my daughter and I are shipping off to Alabama for her mid-winter break (I'm glad WE didn't get stuffed in a black plastic bag, followed by a stuffy box for OUR journey).

In stitches,
Teresa  :o)

Heart fabric fondling...

Thanks to LuAnn over at Loose Threads, I did a little Valentine's Day playing around.  I collect heart/love fabrics, and LuAnn's little piece was just the thing to make.  It was tempting to make it bigger because it was hard narrowing down the fabric choices (the HARDEST part for me, always!).  

I don't have the HST's and squares sewn together yet, but this little project allowed me a little sewing machine time...too much hand applique lately and NO piecing.  My little pieces will finish 3 inches, so the whole thing is only 18 x 18.  I had hoped to make a smaller version for a mug rug, but I wanted to show off more of each fabric.  I am such a fabric addict...

I hope everyone had a great Valentine's Day!

In stitches,
Teresa  :o)

What I did during Downton...

Well, I am trying a plan "B" idea for a swag border.  I really love the plan "A" roman knot...maybe because it is fast and I get to start quilting sooner, LOL.

To make sure that is NOT my motivation, I thought I would mess around with one appliqued border to see if that is truly where my lazy heart lies.  

I thought I would make the swags look like "cut work" - maybe because I was watching Downton Abbey and looking at Violet's lace hankie.  Have you ever seen swags with holes in them - I think I made it up, but after looking at MILLIONS of quilts in books, magazines, museums, and the Internet, one never knows...

I managed to trace and cut up a lot of freezer paper during that nice, long episode.  (Thank God, nothing to cry about in this one...all those tears and nose blows make it hard to get anything done!).

I am still messing around with the block setting.  I've been considering with the suggestion of putting the conductor in the bottom left corner and trying to arrange the other blocks in some sort of "orchestra order." It's not easy with a square/diagonal setting, when the orchestra is a semi-circle, but here goes nothing...I got out all my little paper bits again...

This one is as close to the real deal, the real order as I could get.  Really, the timpani should be beyond the trombone, but just not possible in this setting.  To me, the bottom row is way too heavy with dark objects. I modified it a bit to get the piano off the bottom (after all...it is only a concerto instrument and not normally in the orchestra line up...).

OK...this is weighted better, and I like how the woodwinds are right, plum in the center where they should be (flute next to oboe on one row, and clarinet next to bassoon on the next).  But the angles of the long, skinny instruments bother me.

OK, maybe that is better.  My daughter is off from school AGAIN (snow day? really? WE didn't get the blizzard...I think someone just wanted a 4-day weekend...) and walked by and noticed that I really could turn the oboe 90 degrees and not hurt the integrity of the block.  Ah, young, fresh eyes...

So, back to the quilt cave to delve deeper...

In stitches,
Teresa  :o)

Decisions, decisions...

Boy, oh boy, am I ever up against a wall...my design wall.  I am having a hard time deciding how to proceed with setting these 16 finished blocks into a quilt.  I really thought I had a plan, but after seeing all the blocks together, I sort of fell out of love with my old plan A.

Then, every time I walk by the design wall, I move blocks, and try to remember to take a picture.  Still no spark of inspiration.

Next, I printed out tiny versions of the blocks, and played with the layout that way.

Now I am looking at plan B...and plan C, plan D, plan E, etc.

I have been studying all my idea books where I saved pictures of Baltimore style quilts...LOTS of sticky notes of things I liked at the time I saved them.

I have been scouring all my quilt books that contain antique Baltimore album quilts....A LOT MORE sticky notes, and books scattered all over the quilt cave.

I've been doodling around on my computer, too.  I am a very visual person...I really need to see it.  A lot of the antique Baltimore style quilts I've been studying seem really busy.  While I was making the blocks, I was thinking I would put tiny sawtooth sashing around every block.

But now I think that is too busy.  Sue Garmon can really pull that off...she has a great eye for how to balance all the elements, but I seem a little lost.  I doodled around with other possibilities...not sure any of them really grab me.

Even a thin, basic strip sashing seems blaring to me when done in green, red, or brown, but maybe if it is done in a very light brown so that it doesn't jump out at me, maybe I will like it.  I've studied some more recent Baltimore style quilts that incorporated this idea.

Then I found examples that had sashing made from the background, which looks like no sashing, but does space the blocks out a bit more so that they are not "doing battle with each other."  That started looking very elegant to me.  Then I stumbled on this roman knot inner border idea.

This would have no applique border...just lots of (hopefully) stunning hand quilting (and mitered outer borders)...hmmm...

Then I wondered about a very subtle, thin, light brown sashing AND this roman knot idea...hmmm, may be getting busy again.

Then I thought about a wider sashing, but still with the thin subtle brown strips and a cornerstone, accompanied by a more traditional scallop outer border...or a vine...

With this idea, I would get thin strips of background on each side of the light brown, which would make the blocks not crowd so much against each other.  But, it is also busy...what to do, what to do...

Then I thought about spacing the blocks out with sashing made from background fabric, then add an inner border around all the blocks of some kind...plain strip or sawtooth, followed by a more traditional appliqued outer border (I don't have the inner border doodled in below, but it is there, in my brain...).

I was sad to have to reject the blocks that had the G and F clef signs and the lyre in them.  I could introduce those ideas in an appliqued outer border, either with a vine or scallop motif.  What do you think of the heart motif?

It is actually an F clef, with its mirror image, as a very crude doodle.  These clefs are asymmetrical and difficult to use unless you get creative...

So there I am...basically thinking of either plan A...

Or some version of plan B...

That is where I am...now...today.  Who knows where I will be tomorrow...(maybe plan C).

Help!

We got a little bit of ice and some snow in southeast lower Michigan last night, so my daughter is enjoying a snow day from high school and an unplanned 3-day weekend (if fact, I think she is still in bed, tut-tut).  Good luck to everyone who will be getting a bigger dose of snow, wind, and misery today, tonight, and tomorrow.

In stitches,
Teresa  :o)