It Was Only a Matter of Time...

I've finally done it. After nearly 4 years of quilting I've finally cut myself with a rotary blade (note: no pic on this post, LOL). I didn't go about it the traditional way...I've read of other quilters and their mishaps and have always been careful of keeping my fingers on the ruler, and never in the path of the cutting blade.

So how did it happen? Well, the other day I had left a pin on my cutting mat (bad, bad, bad!) and ran over it, nicking the blade. I used my Dritz sharpener and made it better, but today I'm doing a lot of cutting for the about.com New Year's Day Mystery Quilt and got tired of the little skips. I got out the sharpener again, this time making note of where the nick was so I could tell if it was getting better. I did several rotations on each side, with each grit. Almost good enough. Did a few more swipes and held it to the light. There was some debris on the edge (I suppose the shavings) and as I went to try to carefully clear that away with my index finger I wasn't paying attention to the rest of my fingers and managed to tap the blade ever so gently with my middle finger.

Good thing I don't faint at the sight of blood, LOL! All is well, the bleeding has stopped and bandage is firmly in place. Oh, and that evil blade is now in the Used Blades box and I got out a new one.

Orca Bay Part 7a

Orca Bay 7a 7059, a photo by Misha Misha Misha on Flickr.

Via Flickr:
I suppose this isn't how they'll be used, but I liked laying them out this way for the photo. They're a little bit big, though, and I may need to fiddle with the seam allowance to get them down to size. I'm too tired to figure it out tonight so I'll wait until tomorrow to take another look. I've only done these 5 so far and haven't made all of the black triangles yet so it's not the end of the world if I have to rip a few.

Edited to say: I think the red triangles are too big, period. The instrux said to cut them using the specialty ruler or to cut a 5 1/8" square and then cut diagonally. This makes the red triangle 3 5/8" tall by 7 1/4" wide. I know some of the points get cut off in the process, but I suspect that this is too large. If you have any answers for me, I'm happy to hear them! I posted on Bonni's blog comments a few hours ago but haven't heard back yet. 

Orca Bay Part 6

Orca Bay Part 6 7058, a photo by Misha Misha Misha on Flickr.

Via Flickr:
I'm not sure yet how many blocks I'll need for my wall hanging sized version of this mystery, so I'm only doing a few of each part at this point. That's my story, and I'm sticking to it!

NYMQ 2012

nymq 2012 7055, a photo by Misha Misha Misha on Flickr.

It's almost here! New Year's Day on about.com's quilting forum we'll be doing a one day (cough) mystery quilt. Yes, some really do get their tops done in one day but to be honest a lot of us don't, but it's a great group event with lots of participants. Come and join us!

Last Minute Gift

Last Minute Gift 7053, a photo by Misha Misha Misha on Flickr.

Via Flickr:
Almost forgot to make a present for Smokey! Thank goodness she likes it (of course, it's stuffed with catnip and batting scraps). The outside is fleece, as she can't eat a hole in it like she did with the earlier, cotton versions. Duplicate was made for her birth mommy, Sadie. Smokey quality control checked Sadie's too!

Orca Bay Step 5

OB5 7054, a photo by Misha Misha Misha on Flickr.

We don't yet know how these funky triangle pieces will be used but I have 6 made so far and hope to sew some more tonight or tomorrow. It's not too late to join! Check Bonnie's blog for instructions http://quiltville.blogspot.com/

Cascadia Snowscape

Cascadia Snowscape 7035ss, a photo by Misha Misha Misha on Flickr.

This is the mini quilt I made for Patti in the Winter 2011 Doll Quilt Swap. Several of the fabrics including the border have silver printed accents. It finished approximately 18x23"...a little bigger than it was supposed to be because I loved the border fabric so much!

I added some embroidery stitches in silver and blue on a few of the interior snowflakes. The border is quilted in blue, following the lines of the trees (the ones that aren't silver).

There are a few beads and some silver spacers as well that can be seen in the detail pic.

The curved piecing technique is the same as I used on Huckleberry Swirl recently, and is from the book Vivacious Curvy Quilts by Dianne Hire.

Doll Quilt Swap Teaser

CS close up 7037, a photo by Misha Misha Misha on Flickr.

Just a little close up of a detail on a quilt I'm working on for the about.com swap hosted by Patti. I'll post a pic of the entire quilt this weekend. The theme this round was either Winter or Holiday.

Orca Bay Step 4

Kind of posting and running this morning, but wanted to get up the picture of the first four triangles I've made for the 4th clue from Bonnie Hunter's Orca Bay Mystery quilt.

I'm really excited to see where this all is going!!

Smokey is anxious too. Below you can see she wanted to help get the foundation papers ready for the red (pink) string blocks.

Obnoxious Hearts

I know, that sounds funny. We have a friend who is ill, and we decided to shower her with cards. That idea morphed into sending cards with 6" heart blocks for her to make something with. But knowing Jonna, and her addiction to affection for Obnoxious Fabrics, we decided to make Obnoxious Heart blocks for her. Here are my contributions. Hope they don't make her too dizzy!

My Name is Misha, and I'm a Slob!!!

Ok, I admit it. I'm a slob.

My sewing room is a total nightmare but I'm working on it! Here are some "before" pictures that I took a few months ago. I started taking pictures of how it looks as you walk into the room, then panned from left to right. I did scoot over a bit to the right so you could see my computer station.

Panning from left to right...

This is the center, my cutting station is under there somewhere

The right side: laptop, printer and "elevated Smokey sleeping platform" aka ironing board

I have to say, it doesn't always look like this. In fact, it's looked much worse.

We are totally revamping the room, however, and I've already accomplished quite a bit. The big, teak piece of furniture in the first photo is now in the living room, and is completely clear of junk. I now have a big design wall that covers the entire surface of that north facing wall.

I've also removed most everything that's not craft or computer related. I hope to soon have a new, rolling cutting/pressing island. It will be 48" square, with shelves underneath. Half the top will be for cutting, the other half will be a pressing board. It will be nice and wide so I can press larger things more easily (including a cut of fabric from selvedge to selvedge!)

Smokey is not happy at all, as I've totally disrupted her routine and her napping areas. She showed her displeasure today by stomping around on the cutting table, and knocking things to the floor at will.

I did find a few treasures as I cleaned up, including a long-missing wrist brace (which I surely will need tomorrow at work!) some beading needles I've been searching for the last  2 weeks, and last but not least the title to my car, LOL.

I leave you with one last picture, facing the opposite direction (away from the computer) is my sewing station and a glimpse into the little walk in closet. As I clean things up I'll post pictures of the progress, but tonight I just leave you with the mess...if for no other reason than to make you feel 100x better about your own sewing room!

Orca Bay Step 3

OB3 7026, a photo by Misha Misha Misha on Flickr.

Step three in the Bonnie Hunter Orca Bay Mystery quilt. They are 2" now, finish at 1.5". I'm extra glad now that I'm making a smaller version, I don't think I could've stood to make another 200+ of these, LOL.

WIP Huckleberry Wave

WIP Huckleberry Wave 7017s, a photo by Misha Misha Misha on Flickr.

A work in progress. It's a variation on Huckleberry Swirl that I made for ALQS6. This will be for me, so it's going very slowly as I have other priorities...but I just recently blogged about the original and was asked if I was making a twin for myself. More of a fraternal twin! ;)

Technique is from Dianne Hire's book Vivacious Curvy Quilts.

I really wanted a take-along project so I've been hand piecing these. Not a good idea, as it will be very difficult if not impossible to trim some of them down, LOL.

I will probably add bits and pieces/wedges to them by machine to bring them up a little in size to minimize the need to trim. (Two of the blocks on the right side are not actually sewn yet.) It will be an interesting puzzle, that's for sure!