Finding a quilter and my Oscar predictions

So, I'm looking for a longarm quilter to quilt my Woodland Creatures quilt.  I advertised on a group I belong to and found a few that might be able to do the job, so I'm happy about that.  I did find another through a Facebook post.  I got to see the quilting done by the founder of Bad Ass Quilters Society, Maddie Kertay.  (see the post at this site for a peak at her quilting).  Her quilting is just divine, and I got goosebumps just looking at what she'd done on other quilts, but then she posted in the interview I was reading that she no longer takes customer quilts.  Waaaah!  So I'm back to my original bunch, among whom, as I said, there are a few who seem to be able to do what I want.  I will probably be thrilled by what gets done, so I'll be happy with it, I'm sure.

I got the two side borders all pressed, and ready to have the motifs sewn down, just need to get the borders to the machine and get to it!  Maybe I will get some of it done next week.

Saturday I have classes to attend, and then our weekly Dungeons and Dragons game.  We'll probably be playing til at least 6pm or so.  I'll most likely be too tired to sew much after that.

Sunday I am going to an Oscar party, so I might be able to sew in the morning a bit.  We'll see... but no promises until next week.

The borders are so long I can't even photograph them yet.  I can't reach high enough on my design wall to hang them vertically so they don't drag on the ground.  My DH probably can... using a step stool, but he has an amateur radio event this weekend and I hate to interrupt his radio time.

Here is a picture of the finished quilt - you can see the side borders in it, though these are not ones that -I- made.

Woodland Creatures with all borders complete.

Quite the busy appliqued borders but I'm really happy with the way mine came out.  Can't wait til the edge stitching is all done and the embroidered elements are complete so I can all them done-done.

Sunday is Oscar night, so I thought I'd share my predictions.  I wonder how many I will get right.  I won the pool at the party last year, and the year before, so I'm hoping for a three-peat.

My predictions for 2014:
Best Pic – 12 years a slave
Best Actor – McConaughey
Best Supp Actor – Leto
Best Actress – Blanchett
Best Supp Actress – Nyong’o
Best Anim Feat – Frozen
Best Cinema – Gravity
Best Costume Design – Gatsby
Best Director – Gravity
Best Doc Feat – 20 feet from stardom
Best Doc Short – The lady in number 6
Best Film Edit – Gravity
Best Foreign Lang – The great beauty
Best Makeup/Hair – Dallas Buyers club
Best Orig Score – Gravity
Best Orig Song – Frozen
Best Prod Design – Gatsby
Best Anim Short – Get a horse!
Best Live Act Short – The Voorman problem
Best Sound Edit – Gravity
Best Sound MIx – Gravity
Best Visual FX – Gravity
Best Adapt Screenplay – 12 years a slave
Best Orig Screenplay – Her

Jury and other duties

I am sitting in the Ventura County Hall of Justice, waiting to see if I get called to actually sit on a jury.  So far today, no one's been called at all.  I hope it continues that way.  I want to make a clean getaway at 5pm.  *snicker*

Anyway, on the quilting front, I finished two borders for my Woodland creatures quilt, and I have some of the blocks pinned for assembly. I rarely pin, but these blocks are SO big, and the fabric frayed so easily on the edges while I was working on the blocks, that I decided to go the route of pinning them.  I will sew them together tonight when I get home.  Here are the two borders I have finished:

Woodland Creatures upper inner border

Woodland Creatures lower inner border

Sorry the picture of the chipmunk border is a little blurry, i just couldn't seem to get a clear picture of it.

So I got home from jury duty and didn't feel like just vegging in front of the tv, so I sewed those pinned blocks and got the first borders on the Woodland Creatures quilt.  Here it is, (pic taken by my DH, so not blurry):

Woodland Creatures, sans outer borders.

Tonight and tomorrow night are the last of the Olympics, with Sunday being reserved for the closing ceremonies.  Are you watching?  I thought about boycotting the games because of the human rights issues going on in Russia, and the slaughter of stray dogs in Sochi before the games, but I simply couldn't miss the figure skating and ice dancing.  So far, I have to admit, the participants did not disappoint.  I don't really watch any other winter sports, so the rest was all watched on fast-forward on the DVR.  It really was amusing to watch some of the sports at x3 speed!

Anyway... hope you are all staying warm and enjoying your day.  TGIF!

The Final Two

I have my decision down to two fabrics for that border - an autumnal leaf pattern and a brown on cream plaid.  Both suit the quilt (it does have several plaid fabrics in it, and it is an autumn quilt), and I simply can't seem to make up my mind.  I have decided to go light for the border... but which one?

 

Autumn Joy with two possible border fabrics.

My husband likes the plaid, but I'm afraid it might be too light.  I like them both pretty equally, but I'm afraid the autumn leaves might be too busy.  Help?  Leave a comment, please!  Let me know what you think.  Thanks.

Run for the Border

I finally finished the last blocks for my Autumn Joy quilt.  Since it was a BOM, all I had to do was keep up month by month... I did manage to keep up most of the time, and the center of the quilt is finally finished.

I wasn't happy with all the fabrics the shop us to make the quilt with, so some months, I substituted my own fabrics for some of the parts and motifs.  Based on that experience, I didn't buy the 'finishing kit' for the quilt from the shop.  I dug into my own stash and found a nice medium green for a first border.  It seemed to brighten up the quilt somewhat, so it seemed a good idea.

Here is the quilt top with the first border added:

Autumn Joy

The strip of red to the left is another fabric I'm auditioning for the outer border, which will have leaves appliqued in the corners.  This fabric is actually a brick read with off-white crackles running through it.  It looks nice with the quilt, but I'm trying to steer away from a Christmas-y look.

I could use some opinions...  and ideas if you can think of another color that might look good with this quilt instead of the brick red... I really don't want to change the first border color though, I like the medium green.   Help?

And Done...

Did the embellishment of the block... and I have to say I'm very happy with it.  I thought it would take forever to do the stitch, but it went SO fast.  Got it done in just a few short hours.

My January block, all finished.

On a sour note, I missed the first night of the winter Olympics while watching old programs on the DVR... I heard I missed some ice skating - which I love and is the only reason I really watch the winter olympics (that and the ice dancing).  Sigh. Oh well, I guess I will have to look up what I missed on You Tube.  Gotta love the internet...

Tea and embellishments...

I am home sick today.  It's the first time I've been physically sick in a very long time.  I had to postpone a dental appointment and jury duty, neither of which I mind putting off a few days.  I have been home drinking tea all day (yes TEA, and only tea... no interesting additives... just plain tea).  I'm foggy in the head enough from this fever without adding grappa to my tea, lol.

I have been doing a little sewing though, even while sick.  I only had to do a little unsewing because I thought I made a mistake... it turned out I sewed it right the first time, and had to resew again, but it's easy to make such mistakes when you're not thinking clearly. 

I made the borders for Bertie's Year, block one (January) sewed them on the block, then did the embroidered embellishments in the block.   Here's my finished block:

I didn't do the fly stitch around the zigzag border... Does it really NEED it?  I don't know... What do you think?  Here's what it looks like WITH the fly stitch:

My block doesn't have the buttons on it yet either, but I will add those after it's quilted. 

I really do want opinions on whether to add that fly stitch on the border or not.  I guess it would help delineate the border, especially in those corners where that one really DARK red makes it hard to see the pattern... but I'm so lazy, it seems like a lot of work.  Anyway - all opinions welcome.  Thanks!  :)