The Rhythm of Life

Aine and her first row of her own quilt, originally uploaded by Cathi O'Neill.

Look at Aines first quilt row! I marked little dots on the backs of two squares and she used needle and thread to go up and down through those dots. I untangled threads for her, but she stitched all those squares together herself. We haven't done any more since last week, but she did great!!

Not a huge amount of dramatic photos to show you this week, as I am constantly working in small snippets of time on four main projects. I try to quilt one Dear Jane square each day (count now up to 52 squares quilted!!), I am working on my second sock (up to heel flap now), I am doing freehand fans on the applecore quilt (doesn't look much different from last week!), and I am slowly sewing together my HSTs for more ocean waves blocks.



Of course while doing all this, I am trying to change the million dress up costumes the girls want changed about every 5 minutes, cleaning toilets, cooking meals, running errands, getting out the few sunny days (it is raining again today!) to the park and friends houses with the kids... It is a nice rhythm of life, and things do get accomplished...slowly!

I wanted to show you all the gorgeous batiks that Micki, another quilting "Yank" here in Ireland sent me when we swapped Civil War fabrics for batiks! I'm well on the way to get my dad's quilt started...just need to get some good snowy mountain fabric. Thank you so much for the large pieces of batik!!

We had a bank holiday on Monday, so Dave and I packed the kids in the car and headed for the West Coast of Ireland. We walked along a beach or two, I knit quite a lot of my sock, and look what town we went through, I just had to take a photo for the blog, sad I know!

My Cup Runneth Over...

Baptist Fan quilting on Applecore Quilt, originally uploaded by Cathi O'Neill.

First thing, let me show you the baptist fan quilting I've been doing on my applecore doll quilt. I decided on natural thread (thanks for your opinions!) and I am doing the freehand baptist fans I learned about in Tonya's tutorial on Bonnie's Quiltville site. I love the textured look it is getting. Doll quilts are great for practicing too!! It won't take me a year to finish a quilt, like with my big Dear Jane!

There is a new small quilt swap starting up, a four seasons swap, check it out here!

I have also started my second sock and am working my way down the leg now, cool!

But let me tell you why my cup runneth over this week! My good friend Carrie (who I've only met a few times in real life, and keep in touch with mostly via Windows Messenger!), came for a visit yesterday and look what she brought me and the girls. She is the sister in law of a friend I made back in our old area near Waterford, and we bonded because we were both Americans married to Irishmen, and both liked crafting, lol. Carrie, her husband, and her two gorgeous kids came for a quick visit on their way back to Maine yesterday and look what she brought me! Some Heather Bailey, Joel Dewberry, and Amy Butler fabrics, some wool for felting, some dishcloth cotton, a gorgeous felted bag, a magazine, a pattern, a crewel embroidery project...and some great stuff for the kids too!! So wonderful!


I am very lucky to have made such wonderful friends both in real life and online. I have sent out some Dear Jane starter packages for a few online friends in the last few weeks, and got a lovely thank you packet back from Monica at Quilt While You're Ahead, some lovely fabrics! Another friend just emailed me today to tell me she's sending me some batik pieces as a thank you to help with my dad's quilt. I sometimes think I get more back from the universe than I send out. Thank you everyone for your generosity!!

On another note...we are having a very wet summer here in Ireland so we've had a few days of sunshine this week and have taken advantage. The girls helped me pick lettuce from our small veg patch tonight for a nice salad. I love being able to make a meal from our own patch of earth.



Aine has started her own pink quilt. I mark little dots where she should put the needle up and down and she has sewn the square together on her own...will have to get a photo of that!! Aisling has been potty training for the last three days, so we've been staying close to home. The first day was abysmal, but something tweaked yesterday, and she has been doing great since then!! Oh the joys!

I've been contemplating Christmas gifts lately, my dad's quilt, a special thing for mom, and now all this wool yesterday has me thinking of face cloths with the cotton, felted bags...going to start going on those soon so that maybe this year I can get more done!!

Birmingham Bound and a Knitted Finished Object!

First Real Sock!, originally uploaded by Cathi O'Neill.

Things are moving along here. I've started quilting my applecore quilt with freehand fans in natural thread and it is looking lovely... I really love the look of the fans on antique quilts, so it is fun to learn!

I have also finished the first sock of my pair, have to cast on soon for the second one lest dreaded second sock syndrome start!! I made this more of an ankle sock with 2 repeats of the pattern instead of the normal 3... I blame genetics and a few extra pounds for my large calves, lol!! This fits great and so far is staying up, woo hoo! This is the first time I used sock wool (instead of heavy wool) and tiny needles, I'm loving this so much better than my first pair of thick socks, even if it takes much longer!! I used Trekking Pro Natura which is 75% wool, 25% bamboo and will have to go look up the colorway, but it is a lovely one!

Any UK or Irish quilters planning on heading to the Birmingham festival of Quilts on Saturday the 18th of August? I got a very cheap flight for the day (early arrival late departure) for Birmingham to see the festival!! I hope to meet up with good friends Katy and Barbara. But would love to meet some other fellow bloggers. Anyone else up for meeting?? Can't wait to see all the quilts and ALL THE VENDORS!! LOL.

If you can believe it, I've been quiilting away on my DJ and am up to 37 blocks now. It is nice to get more done than expected...I'm hoping to start on my 4th row of the quilt tomorrow!!

Tonight I need to finish my next crazy quilt round robin block (deadline to post: tomorrow!!). I am just not very good at it. Don't think I will ever become a great crazy quilter. I'd love to do one more project for myself eventually, but I think I'll focus on more simple stitchery for future projects for a while.

It is sunny today for the first time in a while so might get crazy quilt ready to sew outside while kiddies play!

Thank You Friends!

...For searching your stashes and offering to look for the sky fabric. I decided to take a chance and go to the local lady here in Limerick and look what I found!! Thank you so much for searching your stashes, but it is good to know I have such a huge choice here when I need a specific fabric!! I forgot how huge her fabric selection is, really probably the biggest in Ireland and just down the road!


I am such a scrap quilter that I rarely buy more than a FQ every once in a while. But look at this sweet fabric, it is part of a collection called Bird on a Wire by Makower in the UK. I got a FQ or two of it a few months ago and saw more yesterday and loved it! Don't know what I'll do with it really, but maybe just stroke it for a year or two, lol! I love the modern folky look it has.
 

She also had a great sale on Civil War Fabrics and Japanese taupes she bought because she loves them, but they don't sell in Ireland apparently!! Good for me though, as I got some FQs of both for 1.50 each, very cheap for Ireland!! She also has some CW fabrics for sale by the yard for 5 euros a yard!! Most fabrics here are 14 euros a yard, so what a bargain that is!! Will be going back for that soon, as I ran out of money yesterday!!


I can also say now that I've received my doll quilt for the swap!! Ritacor in Portugal made me a lovely vintagey flower applique quilt with fabrics from her grandmother's stash! I had it in my hands yesterday then glanced into our spare room to realize that quilt on the bed there (not done by me, store bought before I got back into quilting... I have yet to finish big bed quilts to keep for myself). Doesn't it look sweet? THANK YOU RITA!



Christine received my quilt. She is a hand piecer and hand quilter, so I am very pleased that my quilt went to her!! Her thank you email brought tears to my eyes, as she told me the story of seeing my quilt on the Flickr group and wishing it was for her, then her excitement and surprise to see the package from Ireland arrive. I am so glad it is going to be well loved. She is a "wannabe DJer" she has all the fabrics, software and things she needs, so go over to her and encourage her to get started...and check out the cute photo of her Civil War buff son holding the quilt!

Dave has a busy day planned with the girls, and I plan on working on my next Crazy Quilt that is due to be sent out July 31st, my DJ quilted squares of course, and hopefully finishing that sock!! Maybe I'll get the pair done by the end of the summer! I need to baste up the apple core quilt and try the baptist fans with the different threads to see what I like, maybe I should do that too... and I suppose some housework... why aren't there more hours in the day?!

A little help from my friends

Quilt for Dad, originally uploaded by Cathi O'Neill.

Could you help me? I want to start on my dad's Christmas present (mom...I am going to make you something special too, but will keep it secret!!) and I have no batiks. This is the view my parents have of the Cascades from their deck...just gorgeous. I thought I had bought the sky fabric in Bend last Christmas, but now that I can't find it, lol, I am starting to think I passed on it because I need a sky fabric where the clouds go in the length and not the width direction...so it can go the whole 64 inch width with clouds going left to right and not up and down. We have no major selection of fabrics in Ireland, so I'm not too hopeful of finding the perfect sky fabric here, but I'd be willing to pay or trade with anyone that could find 2 yards of a good cloud fabric for me in their lovely local shops! I'll put a list of what fabrics I need for this quilt here in a thumbnail, but click please if you think you might have some fabrics that I could trade you for!!

I also have one more favor to ask you (I know...cheeky of me!!). I want to start quilting on my apple core quilt, but what color quilting thread would you use? I have red and natural, but would black be better for this?? Also, if I wanted to quilt baptist fans freehand, would I start from the edge of the quilt or from the center. is there a good tutorial for this? Help!!

And look! Some knitting being done!! I am up to the toe now on my socks. Here is my massive calf and ankle in full glory with my pomatomus sock. Will I take a break and start on something else, or will I get that second sock on the needles?

Aine was so cute today, she wanted to quilt with me, so I gave her needle and thread and here she is (face painted from summer camp with big pink hearts on her cheeks!) "helping" me with my Dear Jane... I'll keep her big stitches in and quilt around them. I'll remove them eventually but they are so sweet I don't really want to now. I'm up to 31 blocks now!!

Home from Portugal!

View from our apartment in Portugal, originally uploaded by Cathi O'Neill.

This is the view from our living room in our apartment we rented for the week. You can't see it in the distance in the photo but there is a view of the ocean as well. The lovely pool was a short walk away, and we had access to a kids pool and play area in a neighboring complex. We felt we got great place for a totally reasonable price!

 

DH's brother and partner and their two sons, Merlin and Noah, live just down the road, and the kids had great fun getting to know them better. Look at Aine and Merlin holding hands. They did that quite often, it was too cute!!

We went on beach barbeques, a water zoo with dolphin shows, the local zoo where Aine saw her favorite flamingos, saw the local city Lagos, went to the end of the world (OK, the westernmost frontier of Europe, last sight of land for Columbus for a good while!) I swam in the ocean twice, tried to swim every day, read one whole book (The Mermaid Chair by Sue Monk Kidd) and got halfway through another, finished a doll quilt and got through the heel gusset of my Pomatomus sock. We also had a few late night meals with family, and I was able to get drunk one night (which for me entails about 3 or 4 drinks over the course of a night! I'm a lightweight with drinking, if not literally!!) Not bad for a week.

I took a silly fun photo for the vacation photo contest on Summer of Socks. Here is my sock at the "end of the world" beyond this point there be dragons!

Today is our wedding anniversary, 12 years now, how time flies!! We got married on a blistering hot day in Woodstock Virginia. The wedding was at a lovely victorian inn called the River'd Inn. I changed out of my wedding dress and into a swim suit while listening to our wedding band playing traditonal Irish music...pretty laidback wedding, lol!!

I'll be mostly unpacking, washing clothes, and working on some quilting. We have both decided that today is our first day of Weight Watchers again, so Dave will be cooking a nice but healthy meal tonight!!

OK...so better get going, hope to layer my doll quilt for hand quilting (have fallen in love with hand quilting!) and cutting out some more ocean waves blocks...and unpacking...and....

Doll Quilt Swap Quilt - Finished!

Doll Quilt Swap Quilt - Finished!, originally uploaded by Cathi O'Neill.

I got this finished yesterday, woo hoo! It will be out the door and on its way to....???? before our trip to Portugal tomorrow. I feel I cheated on it slightly as I decided to machine the binding on, though I hand finished it...so only the binding was done by machine on this. I really want to keep it, lol, so that is a good sign right? It is the first thing I have hand quilted and finished!

I've included some scraps and had fun wrapping it with a wide strip of Civil War repro fabric...

Here is a photo of the back of the quilt, you can kinda make out which blocks are where with the quilting designs...

I plan on bringing my sock knitting and a hand piecing project, my applecore quilt, to Portugal for evenings and quiet times, if there are any!

The cool protectors for the ends of my sock needles I bought off of etsy from lunastrixae