Design Wall Monday: The Project of Doom

Here is my big Harry Potter quilt in progress.  This is just my first pass at a layout and I already see things I want to switch around.  But it's exciting for me to finally put this pile of blocks up on a design wall (or curtain in this case) and see them together.

The broom and the flying key on the side will be leaning on the outside of the bookshelf, which is why the background is a different color.  There are a few more blocks I want to include, which is why the one block on the bottom looks so lonely.

What would you put in the center?  Right now the monster book of monsters sits there but I am thinking of switching and putting Hedwig there.  I'm also not sure I want both potted plants on the second shelf.  But maybe Neville put them there because he's tall.  I have a backstory for everything.

Thanks for hanging with me while I worked on blocks and shared them this month.  Hopefully this beast will be done soon!

The mess you don't see in a quilt

The front of a quilt is a glorious thing.  The end result of hours of work and love.  But if people could only see what goes on behind the scenes and just behind the fabric, they might be amazed.

Take hexagon (or "hexie") quilts for example.  I've made a few small ones.  I love how they look when finished.  For some reason I only have a picture of the unfinished top of this one that I did back in 2013.

In order for that to happen, a whole lot of this had to happen:

While other people get annoyed with those little cards that fall out of magazines, I save them until I can sit around on a day like today and cut them with my special hexie cutter.  If I do it carefully, I can get 5 from each card.  I'm setting these aside for a big project I plan to start next year.

The Project of Doom quilt I'm working on is really complex behind the fabric. Here's a picture of a finished block:

 The paper is perforated by my needle on every one of those lines, and I'm going to have to sit and carefully pull out all those tiny bits of paper without harming the seams.  It takes a lot of patience and a pair of tweezers.  But it's worth it for the final result on the front:

So that's what I've been up to today, fiddling with paper as much as fabric.  Still makes it a good sewing day!

Pumpkin bread season

I tried a new recipe today.  I had some bananas that were past their prime, some canned pumpkin, and some Nestle Toll House Pumpkin Spice Chips.  I found a good recipe on food.com.  The recipe calls for chocolate chips but I wanted to try out these seasonal morsels.

It turned out great.  I wasn't able to get a picture before one of the teenagers cut into it.  The outer crust has a perfect texture and the bread itself is delicious.  It's a bit mild.  I think these pumpkin spice chips are a little too understated.  I want to try making this again with semisweet chocolate chips and see if I like using those more.

The banana and pumpkin flavors seem like a perfect marriage.  I definitely recommend it. Tomorrow morning I'm going to try it with some cream cheese.  Find the recipe here.

Today's Harry Potter quilt block is a box of Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans.  One of my favorite blocks.

Let me know if you have a favorite pumpkin bread recipe.  Or muffins.  Or pumpkin anything really.  I just love baking with pumpkin this time of year.

Finished for Friday: Animal Advent 11

Here's the next finish in the Animal Advent series by Brooke's Books.  His name is Fitzwilliam Frog and he sings in a choir.  Hard to see in this light, but there are little music notes in the air around him.  I'm assuming he has a nice bass voice.

This is part of a free set of cross stitch patterns you can find at the site I linked to above.  There is a great group of people on facebook working on these right now.  Stitching is so much fun when I can do it with others - even when those people are complete strangers all over the world.

I'm almost caught up with the Harry Potter quilt block show and tell.  Today's  block is a cauldron.  I love this perfect fabric I found that looks like old stone.

Project of Doom Block in Progress

I'm still paper piecing blocks for my Harry Potter Project of doom quilt.  This one on my design board has a million little pieces.  It's Trevor, Neville's toad.  He's not all put together yet.  I realized after I started making him in different shades of green that toads are all brown, aren't they?

The paper piecing for this project gets pretty messy.  I have never tried this technique before and now I'm totally addicted to it.

My sewing area is a little corner of my garage.  Just me and the spiders.  You can see that I have piles of fabric thrown around for just one little block.  It will get worse before it gets better.  Then I will fold up all of these fabrics and get out another stack for the next block.  I've learned so much making this quilt that I want to make another version when I finish this.

If you are interested in making your own Project of Doom, you can find all of the free patterns at Fandom in Stitches.

Linking up with WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced.

Needlework Tuesday: Crochet Owl

Isn't this little guy cute?  He was a quick little project while I was watching a movie one evening.  I think it took me longer to find matching buttons for the eyes than it did to create the rest of him.

You can find the pattern at The Original Bizzy Crochet.  Instructions include two different sizes and they work up fast.  Great way to use up leftover yarn.

He's hanging out right now next to my one of my Halloween cross stitch pieces.  The kids got this awful toy rat that runs around the floor and scares the cats. I put it on the shelf so I don't keep stepping on it.

Linking up today with Needlework Tuesday at Books and Quilts.

The Harry Potter block I'm sharing today is for the fans of the books.  It's the jar that holds Hermione's blue flame.

I liked the jar pattern, and I had extra room in the block, so I added a jar that's holding a bug - Rita Skeeter.  I also found fabric in my stash that has radishes on it so that became a book spine in honor of Luna Lovegood, who wore handmade radish earrings.

Design Wall Monday: Still working on Jolly Halloween

I am back to working on blocks for my Jolly Halloween quilt.  I've trimmed up the embroidery squares and have started making blocks for the corners.  It took me forever to decide on a block I really wanted to use, then I've spent forever switching around fabrics for sashing and borders.  So here is a piece of the design as it stands now.  The outer border has sort of a vintage feel which I think goes with the vintage look of the embroidery blocks.  There are actually two different blacks which look like solids in this picture, but trust me, they each have character close up.

Place your bets on whether this will get done by Halloween.  I think so.  I have a few other Halloween projects I was hoping to get to as well, but I think at this point they may have to wait until next year. 

Linking up today with Design Wall Monday at Patchwork Times and
Design Board Monday at Bits 'n Bobs

Today's Harry Potter quilt block includes a lovely book about potions.

Hopefully I will have at least part of this quilt put together next week for Design Wall Monday!

Autumn Harvest Festival Progress

My Autumn Harvest Festival from The Frosted Pumpkin Stitchery is coming along.  The top half should go relatively quickly after this.  I love that the girl is holding a take-out coffee cup.  Must be a pumpkin-spiced latte.

Linking up with Kathy's Quilts today for Slow Stitching Sunday.

I've almost finished showing all the Harry Potter quilt blocks. They're yelling at me to sew them all together now. Today I have a bag from Weasley's Wizard Wheezes shop, and a little pygmy puff that has escaped.

Finished for Friday: Monster Movie Table Runner

I finished my monster table runner!  I put it on my little coffee table in the family room.  I still have some of the poster fabric left over and Jungle Boy tells me that I should make some placemats out of it.  Maybe next year.  I'm on to other projects now.

I used a nice ghastly green for the inner border and sashing strips and a black spiderweb fabric for the outer border.  I did meander quilting all over with monofiliment.  I found the cute bowl at a thrift store a few years ago.

This will add to my cozy setting where I watch my old monster movies throughout the month of October.  They're silly and campy and I love them. 

Linking up today with Finish it Up Friday at Crazy Mom Quilts.

Tomorrow I will post the final set of instructions in my series on UFO management.  Let me know if you're implementing the program yourself!

Harry Potter quilt block for today: the Marauder's Map!

Beneath it is a book with a tiny broom - probably "Quidditch Through the Ages."  The map fabric is available on spoonflower.com.  I love how the piecing makes it look like it's unfolded.

Have a great weekend.  Are you getting ready for Halloween?

Organizing My Project Queue Part 2

This is a continuation of the process I started outlining in this post.  You will need to complete those steps first before you can begin this section.

You now have a long list of projects, you can tell whether or not you've started each of them, and for some of them you've indicated that they belong to a special season or purpose.  Good job!  Collecting all the information is half the battle.

For my purposes, I'm going to assume that you actually want to finish every single thing on your list.  If there are some items that need to be tossed or given to somebody else to love and finish, then take them off your list and do get them out of your house this week.   Your list should be a happy reminder of all the things you really want to do.

For the next six columns on your spreadsheet, I want you to fill in dates a week apart.  I choose to start my weeks on Sunday, but you can pick any day as your cutoff for a week's worth of crafting.  Just be consistent.

I've just shown a few weeks here, and a few projects at the top of my list.  Now that you have a few weeks in place, it's time to make some decisions.

How many projects can you really get to this week?  Before you even look at your list, think about your crafting style.  I like to do some cross stitch early in the morning while I drink my coffee.  I like to crochet while I watch movies on television.  I tend to do my quilting in the mid afternoon.  Would I get to each of these things in a single day?  Definitely not, but over the course of a week I sure would.  In total, I personally think I can do at least a little bit on an average of 4 or 5 different things a week.  You have to guess this for yourself.  After you do this for a few weeks you will have a much better idea.  My advice would be to start with the lowest number you think is reasonable.  Getting things finished will really motivate you.  Seeing things unfinished will do the opposite.  If you think you can only work on one thing at a time for a whole week, then this system will still work for you.

Choose the projects for this week.  This is where those categories in the fifth column help. My criteria are only suggestions.  You might have many other reasons to choose your projects.

• Do you have a deadline coming up, like a gift that you need to finish?
• Would you like to work on something seasonal?  I like to do Halloween projects during the Halloween season, for example.
• Do you have a project that only needs a few hours of work?
• Do you have a project that's all kitted up and ready to start?  Or would you like to make a kit for a project that you want to start? 
• Look at the projects listed in blue, that you've already started.  Remember these are the UFOs you want to get done.
• Do you have something up on a design wall that you would like to clear off?
• Do you have a very old UFO that you want to finish once and for all so it stops nagging you?
• Most importantly, do you have a project that just sings to you?  Something that you just can't wait to get started on but you've put it off because you've felt guilty about all the other unfinished projects around?  I hereby give you permission to dive in.  Really.  This is all about having fun and enjoying what we're doing.

The bottom line is this:  Every hour that you spend working on something is time spent getting everything closer to being finished.  If your list represents 500 hours of work, and you do something on that list for one hour, your whole pot of projects is down to 499 hours.

Move the projects that you want to work on this week to the top of the list.  You are going to visually separate what you are going to be working on from all of the other projects. They will still be there waiting for you.  Cut each line and insert it at the top of your spreadsheet underneath the headers.  Remember your limit!  If you decided you can work on 4 things, don't put 6.

My list has a five projects that have a task listed for the current week.  I have a lot of finishes coming up, but it doesn't always look like this.  Some weeks it's just about making progress on my top five projects.

Assign tasks to each project for the coming weeks.

• If there's a deadline or a goal date, write "Finish" in the box for that week and make the box a bright color like yellow for a visual reminder of your goal.  You will see on my top line I plan to finish one of my Animal Advent projects each week starting next week.
• If you know that you just want to put some hours in towards a long-term project, write "Work" for this week.  Keep the box white for now.  Don't worry if you don't have a finish date in mind yet.
• Break down each project by what you reasonably think you can accomplish in a week. Fill in tasks for the coming weeks.  For example, if you are starting a quilt one week might be cut fabric, the next week might be sew blocks, then a week for borders.  If you were only working on this one project, you could probably accomplish a lot more, but this method is about moving multiple projects along every week, so keep it small.  If you end up accomplishing more, it's just a bonus.
• Right now, you might end up with future weeks where you have more than your comfortable number of projects.  I'll talk about shifting those in the next post.  Don't worry about them. Just make sure you keep this week to your maximum number of projects.

Use color codes to track your progress.  Here comes the fun part!

• If you work on a project at all during the week, change the box from white to green.  Any kind of progress is a wonderful thing. 
• When you finish a project during  the week, give yourself three cheers and change that box to blue or whatever color makes you happy.

Don't delete anything at the end of the week!  In my next post I'll show you how to manage moving through your projects week-by-week and what to do with those wonderful finished boxes.


Now for today's Harry Potter quilt block:  Professor Lockhart's quill.  He used a peacock feather of course.

The block includes an inkwell, a skinny book, and a bottle of some swirling potion.  The purple book is probably "Magical Me."  Remember, if you can't read the titles on the books it means you're a muggle.

Organizing My Project Queue Part 1

I get a lot of projects done these days in seemingly very little time.  The truth is, I use a lot of long-term planning and work to optimize the way I work on things.  I get restless working on one project too long so I spread out my creative energy.  I always have a few projects that are 90% finished.  As I complete them, I also bring other projects up to the 90% level.

If you would like to try my system, I'll outline it for you over the course of a few separate posts.  Let me know if you give it a try, or ways that you've tweaked my design.

The key tool that I use is Microsoft Excel.  All of my planning is done on spreadsheets.  I'm going to assume you can figure out how to do very basic things in Excel.

The first step that I recommend is simple.  Just write down all of your UFOs (unfinished objects) and WIPs (works in progress).  I know this is daunting - I'm still not finished finding all of mine.  Start with as few or as many as you would like.  You are not going to put all of them into your rotation, just capture that they exist.  List them in the first column of the spreadsheet.  I separated mine out by type of project.  Here is an example of some of mine.

Projects which I have not yet started are listed in black.  Projects which are underway have their title switched to blue.  Some of these have been sitting unfinished for a long time.

My second column indicates the type of  craft - X for cross stitch, etc.  This will come in handy with the next steps I show you.  For now, you can leave the second column off. 

The third column says "kit."  This tells me that I have all of the materials ready to go for those projects that I haven't started yet.  Usually this means I have pulled the fabrics and fibers together myself, but I also use this to mean a kit I purchased.  Enter the number "1" for each future project you have ready to go.

The WIP column is where I indicate all of the projects that I've started  Some, like the Animal Advent series at the top, consist of multiple parts that I've decided to count separately.  So the total that I need to do for that one is 6.  All others in this column are 1. 

Now the reason for the numbers.  Below the last project listed, I inserted simple formulas to total up the columns.

Just click in the box where you want to add the formula and enter =SUM( )  So for example In the box that says 31 I entered =SUM(C1:C93).  I put the same thing in the next box but indicated the D column.  The great thing about inserting a formula, instead of adding it up yourself, is that if you insert another line with another project, the sum will adjust accordingly.  Likewise, as you finish projects the total will go down (yay!).

Still with me?  Check excel help if you're having trouble.  It really isn't hard once you get it once.  Also, this step is sort of for fun to see the running total.  It wont make a difference if you don't add them up.

As you can see, I have about 90 projects that I've written down so far.  Some of these are just ideas and are not kitted up. Some are big, some are small.  42 total projects that I've made a start on.  Yes, I have a problem.  But that's why I came up with this system - to clear some of these up.

Finally I added a column to indicate to myself if a project falls in a particular season or category.  For me these include Halloween, Christmas, gifts, charity, etc.  You might have your own categories.  Not every project has a category and that's fine. 

This should keep you busy for a bit.  In the next installment I'll go over the next part of the spreadsheet, which is where the fun part happens.

Keeping with my October Harry Potter quilt reveal, here is the next block: the Monster book of Monsters!

I knew that printed page fabric would come in handy somewhere.  Unfortunately, his teeth don't show up too well in this picture, but if you look closely in the center sections you can see them. 

Spiderweb Table Mat

I've already confessed that I'm fidgety when I watch television.  It's hard for me to just sit, so I do a lot of crochet.  This was another simple project that I did this week.  It worked up pretty quickly.  For now, It's at the center of the table holding my napkins (which have their own spiderweb holder) and my mummy salt and pepper.  I was never going to be one of those people who bought silly salt and pepper shakers, but these were on sale after one Halloween and my resistance was low.  When I throw my big Halloween party at the end of the month this table mat will work well under a big bowl of something.

If you want to make your own - I promise it's a quick project! - you can find the free pattern at Red Heart Yarn.  A smaller version would make a cute potholder.

Next up for the Project of Doom blocks for October: Butterbeer!  Another one that was a lot of fun to make.

Of course, Drama Girl was concerned that the frothy beer would damage the books.  I'm sure there's some spell to clean that up.

Linking up today with Heather at Books and Quilts for Needlework Tuesday.

Monster Movie Table Runner

I cut apart another panel that I have of the monster movie posters.  I picked this up last year and I liked it so much that I got extra.  Good thing, because I gave away the first quilt so now I can make another.  I played around with this rough layout on the floor.   Two of the images are larger than the rest, so I thought I would put them at the ends.

It wasn't until I had all the smaller posters put together that I realized that the two end pictures ave very different sizes.  Centering them on each end would just involve so much math.  I convinced myself that they wouldn't look good being so asymmetrical, so opted to go with a runner with just the smaller pictures.

Then I got on a roll putting it all together.  Merrily sewing and pressing.  Getting to the last green border and. . .

. . .the bobbin thread ran out just inches from the end.  Happens so often you'd think I'd fill bobbins in advance.  But no, I seem to like the frustration of stopping everything to refill a bobbin.

Then it was time to select the outer border.  This is what I'm thinking right now:

I'm going with spiderwebs.  Figuring out how wide I want to make it.  This should be finished up pretty quickly.  I do love keeping to a crafting theme during the holidays!

The next block in my Harry Potter Project of Doom quilt is Hedwig:

I love how she turned out!

Linking up today for Design Wall Monday with Judy at Patchwork Times.

Slow Sunday Stitching: Country Cottage for May

This is my project today.  I love the little basket of flowers.  I've decided houses are not my favorite applique shapes because its so hard for me to keep lines straight. I swear those windows were lined up perfectly when I glue-basted them.  This is cute though, and will look even cuter with the embroidery added.  After this, I just have one more block to do for this quilt and I can start putting it together.  The pattern is from Shabby Fabrics.

The next block for my month of Harry Potter Project of Doom show and tell is a mandrake!

This will get some embroidery too.  I'll add some squinty eyes and a big "O" for a crying mouth.

Linking up today with Kathy's Quilts for Slow Stitching Sunday.

Caturday: Nap with Pumpkinhead

I love my flannel "Pumpkinhead" quilt.  It's draped over the back of a sofa right now and Hestia seems to think it's a pretty good spot for a nap.

Happy Caturday!

Day 10 of my Harry Potter bookcase quilt.

This is a set of the Standard Book of Spells for each grade.  They're arranged the way teenagers put away books on a shelf.  Each is a different hand-dyed fabric.

Finished for Friday: Chillingsworth Quilt

I finished my Chillingsworth quilt last night while watching "Son of Frankenstein."  I just love how it turned out.  The border is from the Michael Miller "Nevermore" collection.

I used a peach colored Aurifil thread to outline the skeleton and quilt all of the interlocking spiderwebs.  I thought white thread would be too bright and orange would fade into the background too much.  The peach color has a nice glow.  I also did some stitching around areas within the skeleton, if you look closely.

I did a loose, loopy feather pattern in the border in the same color.  Because the border is busy, it doesn't stand out too much and it was a good place for me to practice.

I held up a corner so you can see the back - it's really cute purple wallpaper type fabric.  I used the same fabric for the binding.

This is my new favorite quilt.  I just love it.  It's hanging in my dining room now. 

Harry Potter quilt reveal day 9: Errol, the little owl who looks like a flying bit of lint.  I love the fabric I found in my stash for him.

Linking up today with:
Crazy Mom Quilts
Confessions of a Fabric Addict
Quilt Matters
A Quilting Reader's Garden

10 Things I Love About Not Watching Football

 Kathy over at Mama's Losin' It has a set of suggested writing prompts for today.  I picked "10 Things I love about football." 

There's just one catch.  I don't watch football.  Haven't seen a game in years.  That doesn't stop me from loving it though.  Here are my 10 reasons why:

1. It's a great excuse to sit down and watch television on Sunday afternoons.  While I can hear the neighbors cheering on the home team, I am having an equally enjoyable time catching up on Downton Abbey episodes.  I don't feel guilty for being unproductive in the middle of a weekend day - everybody is!
2. Even though I graduated from college many years ago, I maintain bragging rights to my alma mater's football team.  When they're winners, obviously I'm a winner.  When they lose I just don't bring it up.
3. Having gone to plenty of games in the past, I now know exactly how long 100 yards is.  This is actually pretty useful.  Whenever some measurement is mentioned in a large number of yards, I compare it mentally to a football field.
4. There are a lot of great tailgate and football party food recipes on Pinterest.  There's no law that says a particular dip can only be used for a football party.  When cooks get creative, everybody wins!
5. Football pants.  I might have to endure replays on the nightly news, but I don't always mind so much. 
   
6. We Americans stubbornly insist on calling our game football, when the rest of the world has a game they all call football and we call soccer.  I love that we're just contrary like that. 
7.  Fewer crowds at the mall on game days.  The big crowds are all down the street at the stadium.
8. Special game-day sales.  These run the gamut from shish kabobs to electronics.  Nobody requires you to show proof you actually watch the games in order to get the discount.
9. "Football widow" events.  My local yarn shop hosts a big knit-in on Super Bowl Sunday every year, with refreshments and sales.  Count me in!
10. Last but not least, I can go through the checkout line at the supermarket with a huge bunch of chips and snacks and drinks and guacamole and nobody bats an eye.  Because of course, I'm just getting ready for the game.

 Are you a football fan?  Or more like me - someone who just takes advantage of the wonderful parts of football season.

Day 8 today for the Harry Potter quilt show and tell.

Just another set of books.  Wizards clearly love to bind books with all kinds of fantastical images.  They're wizards, they can do anything they want.  I'd like to think the book with the flames on it is actually hot to the touch in the wizard world.  The one with skulls is probably a book on poisons.