A MONTH LATE--AND A DOLLAR SHORT

                             HERE'S GEORGIE!!!!

I finally finished Georgie Peorgie --my SECOND finish for 2015--
I am on a ROLL, gals!!  

He will have the place of honor in our bedroom bath....  the colors are perfect
for that space.  (And we cannot hear his mumbling from that spot).

He was to be finished in time for President's Day (see title above--"a month late") and his bill is a "dollar"....hahaha....

I did learn a lot making this piece, and altho it is definitely not my best work,
I am still happy he's finished, finito, over, done, fini!! 

I don't have anything else ready to be bound, so I will have "boundless time" (groan...) to work on whatever strikes my fancy.  Now all I need is boundless energy.....

hugs from Julierose, La Blageuse (waiting for the snow to start..YET AGAIN!!)

GEORGIE'S OFF THE WALL

And here he is all layered up and ready for pin basting--["And about time, too!" grumble grumble--] He was stretching this way and that and I had to smooth him out quite a few times--why doesn't that surprise me?  My back is done for the day after crawling around on the floor to lay this out.  Right now it is up on my dining table on my blocking mat (originally used to block my knitted sweaters) where I hope to begin pin basting tomorrow.  

And now, Pride of Place on my design wall is my Sleigh Bells Ring WIP.

It's coming along--I finished another block this morning after dealing with "the grumbler" [and you KNOW who that is!! lol]. 

 As I look at this, I am thinking that I will be making it a whole lot bigger than I first thought--I am really enjoying putting these together.

 (Dawn, you should be spotting some of your fabric in these blocks--they fit right in--merci beaucoup mon amie!)

 One thing I learned is that my feed dogs on Helga are Waaaay too far apart when the plastic 1/4" footsie is on; really, only one feed dog is pulling the material through and therefore: pulling to the left.  Aaaargh. 

 I have upped the presser foot pressure a bit to try to compensate for this, but it is still a battle of "feed dog vs. Julierose"!!  But am doing the best I can with what I have (meanwhile the metal 1/4" foot is somewhere on the Atlantic Ocean being rowed over by Viking longboat, I think--I ordered it Oct 6th!!  I hope they don't drop it overboard!  Seriously--how could it take this LONG??).

Anyone have any suggestions how to overcome this problem or dealt with it??

                                         H E L P!!

I may have to resurrect my old Pfaff Varimatic and give it another chance.  I had it overhauled at my LQS and it started jamming [something about the timing he said!]about one week after--and I was minus $85!!).
Maybe resting under my cutting table made Heidi (that's the Pfaff) re-think jamming on me??? Like DH says put it away for a while and then take it out again and see....a good weekend project for me. 

I also sewed up some more squares to make triple 9-patches this morning...
will try to get some cutting in tomorrow--but will have to do them a little at a time.... 
We have been invited to lunch with some musician friends of ours tomorrow, so hopefully DH will be feeling well enough to go.  

Hugs to you all --and come and see my latest work on Monet's City at Hexagon Alley .  
Julierose, La Blageuse 

GEORGIE TAKES THE REINS

Here's the next GP installment: (see that all knowing grin on his face?) 
WELL............
Last night I dreampt that I heard someone in my sewing room--nah, couldn't be--turned over and went back to sleep....
This morning DH and I went out early (this darn time change has us up at  five am!!) and voted (& as a side note, just because we were such good citizens we are taking ourselves out to lunch for ...wait for it.....ta dah! FISH & CHIPS--I haven't had that for over a year since Mr. Atkins entered my life!!YAY) and returned home.  I sauntered into my sewing room, just waiting to hear Mr. Georges complaining about something or other and.......................
"What to my wondering eyes appeared..?" pinned over where he hangs...but this:

And I heard him mumble as I stared "Well, well, do you think I'd wait forever??" OMG--he had rifled through my stash at night and chosen his own backing!! [And it's even starched and ironed??? Yikes--good thing Halloween has passed or I'd be really scared--ya think (LOL).....]

And so my little 9-patchers will live to become the FRONT of another quilt; 

This is what I did this morning while Georgie hummed some Revolutionary tune to himself (must be really old, as I don't even know it!!) 

These will total--when done-- 85 more 9-patches-- (gee Barb, do ya think I'm turning into a 9-patch lover? A true love/hate relationship goin; on here). Not bad for a mornings' work...

We still--amazingly--have some color left on our trees even after those winds and downpouring rain:

this is the view out my tv room windows...I love that burnt orange against the blue, blue skies....

I looked down in our dingle that stretches off our back deck and saw those red sumac bushes and then looked up and saw the clouded sun peeking through what will soon be totally bare branches...and so here we stand in between Fall and Winter....

hugs to all, thanks for playing along with my Georgie Peorgie saga...stay tuned for the next thrill-laden installment ;--)))
Huigs, Julierose, La blageuse

SUNDAY SURPRISE(s)

So glad I took pix yesterday of our Fall turning leaves; this morning I awoke and they were almost all blown away; cold front winds still howling......
And So (sew!):
I went into my room this morning and finally sewed last border on Georgie

the one at the top--less dense, but still flowery...and then

I realized that I had cut GAZILLIONS of pieces ready to become 9-patches....my nemisis it seems--none of them come out evenly! 

And so, thinking of the back of the quilt for Monsieur Georges, I made these blocks....

Those wonky 9-ers in a cross hatched pattern--and so I now LOVE them! 
should I use them on the "back"?  Or make another top with them....here is the pile I have left to go--

22 more plus 6 on my cutting table and many 1.25" red and off red strips I found in my drawer--in the back!! (Oh that stash does come in handy).

And so another decision makes its way into my brain....I also have some big 9.5" flowery blocks left over that could become a plainer backing for Georgie...I hear him tapping his foot ("ZUT--ALORS!!" ---I think he must have known French--don't you think??  " Une autre decision pour faire!!")--his face is turning red--I SILENTLY AND SLOWLY  crept out of the room and closed the door on his shenanigans....what to do, what to do? 

What would you do????   ;--000

MEANWHILE: as this is Slow Stitching Sunday, I am working on these: my Monet's City hexagons--yes, my thumb allows me about maybe (with wrist/thumb support on) to sew a row!  I am doing my "Happy Dance"...

I am blowin' in the wind today...the Season is really changing and I want to finish up Georgie before the New Year--at least get him layered for quilting....
Have a warm and toasty Sunday--
P.S.Tom feels so much better today-- he made his Spaghetti Sauce with meatballs for supper--YAY--no cooking for Julie today!!  What a guy....

Hugs, Julierose, La Blageuse

SATURDAY MEMORIES & Updates on projects

Georgie came for a visit this morning; Next decision: what color border--or no border....(at least he's stopped that annoying muttering!).

Here are the 1st two blocks of Sleigh Bells Ring postage stamp up on my design wall:

The little white repeating blocks are snow drifts.....

AND

Here are the 1st two blocks of my Greylock Mts. piece.  When we were first married we lived in the Berkshires in Massachusetts at the foot of Greylock Mountain--- whose colors changed by the hour. 

 I thought that BH's Scrappy Mts. Majesty pattern would be a good vehicle for a memory quilt of when we lived in the mountains and when I had my first baby, a girl whom we named Candice.

 Something about this block just rang a recall bell in my head--and all those days came flooding back--

And so I have to make this one, too......  

I have never worked with long diagonals before and I find that they require a very delicate hand and slow sewing. .

I had two layer cakes in my stash-- one all grey dotted and spotted fabrics and the other flowers--(we often had huge thunderstorms and blackened skies--what wonderful storms--I used to find myself--- humming "Don't know why, there's no sun up in the sky, Stormy Weather..." as I was pushing Candice in her pram up North Street for her afternoon nap. She was safe and toasty deep in her big pram watching her little mobiles bounce along as I donned my rain slicker and floppy rain hat.  What wonderful days those were.  Ah, youth.....Happy Days...) 

I will leave you as we are going up to Candice's this evening to attend my Grandson Steven's (her first born) Jazz Band Concert in which he has TWO solos.  And so more memories are made....

Hugs to all--enjoy your weekends--happy sewing  Julierose, La blageuse

GEORGIE PEORGIE SMELLS THE ROSES & MORE

I changed the large squares so that Mr. George could stop and smell the roses lol!  
I am trying out different large blocks to surround His Excellency!

 I'd like to fancy that his wife must have had a rose garden and that he took the time to stop and enjoy the attar of roses.....

I think I like these as well as the black with red roses blocks; I will use both in my quilt but I somehow think that this will be the center of it....
I need to cut out more large blocks and {sigh} more nine patch squares.....

Here's a closer look at those prints.....

AND: 
I have made up a little list of "Things I'd Like To Make" over these next many months....

1) Georgie Peorgie ;

2) Lozenges;

3) Kitty Kats; (I haven't as yet decided on fabrics for these....)

4) Some kind of Log Cabin As-You-Go...to learn the process; and

5) Are you ready for this one?? A Christmas themed Postage Stamp Quilt--using up all those mini charm packs I have collected. I will be using 2.5" squares--

Now this ought to keep me busy and yet not bored....and hopefully won't freeze me up....am I being too ambitious?  Perhaps......

AND...I haven't forgotten this one up on my design wall either:

I have to decide if I should use sashing or not, this is the one I have to leave up and try to figure out what I want/need to do to it....I want to use it as a wall hanging over our wine cabinet in our re-done dining room.  I think the colors will be right in there....we'll see.  

Hugs to all, Julierose, La Blageuse

WHAT'S NEW, WHAT'S OLD, AND COMING ATTRACTIONS.....

Remember how I told you I LOVED  fun with Barb's "King George" quilt?  Well, I found some George fabric and am going to try to make a smaller (a lot smaller!! )
 version for a lap quilt.  I am titling mine: "Georgie Peorgie" 
 Here is the start up on my design wall.  I have been putting 9-patches together and cutting a bit at a time. It may not end up just like this, but I wanted to get an idea of how my fabric choices would play together...

I seriously love this fabric grouping with the pieces of flags and edges of cherries ("Did you Chop Down that Cherry Tree?" lol

And I wish I had bought MORE of this lovely...yum!!

This will be my big work in progress for a while. 

Here is the next block laid out....

AND--finally, our floors are D O N E ...furniture back in and dishes back in buffet.  
PHEW--not a ride I want to take again!!  But I love the results...

Here's a snippet of the floor, old oriental from DH's Mom and my Mom's China closet....
love, love, love!!

And here is my latest quilt library addition...want to make a log cabin using this method--perhaps bash that pink stash...this is a wonderful book...really enjoying Jera's methods...
great explanations and fun quilts....
Health update: aaargh--will not bore you with anything more after today, suffice it to say that my back is so-so--still icing
my thumb is a toughie to heal--so it'll be a while, 
and my poor lil finger cut is healing....
RX: short times at machine and standing to cut...more fabric washing--next batch will be black and whites....and so 

I leave you with

Fall by the shore...captured on the way to see Mom...

Hugs to you all and many thanks for your patient commiserations....
Julierose, La Blageuse