My T-Rex picked out the fabric himself!
Also, you may want to visit my new blog. That’s right, I’m getting fancy(ish)!
A Lovely Quilt for Cinderelly – More Piecing
I have completely lost my sewing mojo. I have a half-dozen projects in various states on completion lying around the room. Since some are gifts, and two are for Halloween, I better find that mojo soon!
Cinderelly was coming along well. I had all the fabric cut out from what was on hand, and even labeled the towers and measured everything to make sure I bought the right amount of additional fabric. But the problem with starting a project over a year after you bought the fabric…yeah, the purple was gone, gone, gone. Luckily my LQS was able to track down the name of the fabric, and I found it online – get this, from a quilt store in Spokane, where we used to live! Random.
So as soon as I finish the Dude’s Halloween costume, I’m putting Cinderelly back up on the design wall. Maybe having something up there will make the mojo return.
Making a Nine Patch Disappear
If you’ve ever been on the Maelstrom in EPCOT, you know how to say “disappear!” (OK, maybe it’s just my family.)
I bought a layer cake of Basic Grey’s Fruitcake, because my mother is an enabler and asked me to make something for her table for her birthday. After going through about twenty ideas for placemats, I settled on the disappearing nine-patch. Which, of course, is better done with charm packs.
But I got the layer cake cut in fourths and sorted into the various patterns.
Sewed rows together, making sure the big prints were in the corners (definitely snowmen and the big ornaments; everything else was subject to slicing.) I used the nearly-solids in the middles.
Two easy cuts and you have an entirely new set of blocks.
Which are arranged so very neatly on the design wall.
Charm Pack Quilt-Along – Starting the Blocks
I finally finished the four-patches on the Charm Pack Quilt Along, and started on the blocks. (Yeah, so it ended weeks ago. What’s your point?)
I have not been following the block instructions, because I’m a rebel, or something like that. I’ve been sewing together the three different rows, then when I have a pile of those, I arrange the colors and sew together a block. That way, if there’s too much yellow in one corner (see middle block), I can just swap another completed row.
(Someone knows the design wall is busy with something else.)
I am normally very OCD, but I love the randomness of this pattern. Too much blue in one block? Eh, put it next to a pink-er block. It all works out in the end. Love.
My niece, the Gator, informed me that she loves the colors in it. I’m so very not surprised. I had a feeling that’s where it would go from the beginning!
The summer-y charms have been alternating with a Christmas project. It’s a little confusing to have them both pinned and waiting for their turn on the machine!
Holy Habanero
Came home last week and went outside to take down the garden. Found this instead.
Each of my four Habanero plants have probably 20 more peppers on them, and even more flowers blooming. There’s even flowers blooming on the Rutgers tomato plants!
We’re six weeks from the first frost date. Grow, little peppers and tomatoes!
Upcycling Some Clothes
Every time we go away, I become determined to post here while we’re there. I even upload pictures so everything is ready to go. But the beach…it’s easier to do nothing there.
So here we go on catch-up!
Sent this off to my niece before we left. The tank top is one that my sisters and I wore in high school – I think at one point, we each had one. Unfortunately, none of us are high school size any more.
I cut the straps on the tank to make ties and cut the sides and bottom down to Gator-size.
The skirt was originally a shirt from Old Navy, and such high quality that it ripped the first time I wore it. I sliced it off right below the holes and stitched it right to the bottom of the tank. No hemming!!
It’s a little too big, but hey, at least it’s at my sister’s house now and not at mine. Anything that moves fabric out of my piles is good!
A Lovely Quilt for Cinderelly – Piecing
So… I’m trying to figure out equilateral triangles. Bought some rulers – a Tri-Recs set – figuring I need them for Mom’s 54-40 quilt anyway and maybe they’d help with the castle even though it’s not a traditional block.
It’s hard to figure out how much fabric I need for each block and I feel like I’m wasting a bit. To make 5.5″, the instructions said I need 6″ of fabric. But I have 1/2″ leftover. But I’m also afraid to contradict the instructions! Especially since I’m using batiks/Fairy Frost so I get confused about which direction I might need to cut 1/2″ less on. Because one side definitely needs to be (and I need to pay very close attention to my seams!)
So I’m cautiously cutting and sewing, pressing and checking before even cutting the next block. It makes for slow going…but hopefully less bad cuts. I’m still not sure it’s right – shouldn’t there be some extra on the side for where the next block will match up? At the top points? Yeah, I really don’t know what I’m doing.
Do you see the castle? Two towers down, six to go…
Of course, speaking of bad cuts, I cut the straight pieces wrong…twice now. Some of the bits can be re-used elsewhere in the quilt. The rest of going to the little pile of Fairy Frost scraps and FQs. Which doesn’t include a dark blue that I decided I need for prairie point flags. Guess I’ll be off to the quilt shop when I know how much more light blue I need!
What’s Behind Door #1?
Finally started cleaning out the office/sewing room. The closet is filled with office supplies and fabric, so the door stays open. So does the regular door, which leaves a 12ish” gap on the wall. I guess enough room to hang a picture, but not really anything else…except maybe…
Oh, yeah! Guess who has a design wall now? (Like, finally?)
In action, the Charm Pack Quilt Along. Makes me want to get moving on those four-patches and get more on the wall!
The back is pieced from a 4×8′ insulation board. I cut off 12″ and 6″ to make it about 78×60″. Tycho is very suspicious that this will make it harder to lay on top of quilts.
It’s covered in flannel, taped at the back. I decided not to go with white because I use a lot of white in quilts.
So now there will be less design RE-layout due to cats and kids having fun in the living room. And also, less walking for me! (Wait, that’s not a good thing.)
I Know What Boys Like – Quilting
The Dude went back to school, full day kindergarten, this week. I thought I’d have so much more time to catch up on posting, but somehow the errands I used to cram into three hours spread out into the six! I’ve been doing a lot of cleaning and organizing now that he’s not around – fridge, freezer(s), fabric. I’m tackling his play room next week. That should be a fun one.
And I have been working on sewing. I finished quilting one of the twins’ quilts. This was my first time using the walking foot, but I still had some annoying skips and stops.
See, on the top of the brown paw prints? It jammed up for a few stitches, then skipped when it started moving again. I thought using the walking foot prevented that? Grrr. I want to try free motion quilting, but how can I do that when I can’t even do straight lines?
(Why did I choose the one spot on the quilt where my seams didn’t match?)
But I do like how it looks when quilted and squared. I used a variegated blue thread and stitched about 1/4″ off the ditch.
As a result, the back has 1/2″ and 1.5″ zig-zags. It was a pain to stitch four inches, stop, turn, stitch four inches, stop, turn… So I think the other twin will get a different design – maybe chevrons. Fewer turns!
I think I’m binding it in a plain cream fabric. There’s more than plenty pattern on the rest of it!
Charm Pack Quilt Along – Step Two
Poor, poor CPQA. It’s been relegated to leaders and enders in between the Zs of the I Know What Boys Like quilts. Everyone else is moving on to Step Three – ie, sewing the blocks together – and I’m still running a few four-patches through every day.
Of course, if you check out Step Two, you’ll figure out that I’m doing it the harder way so that each and every block has two different prints. Because I like making my life just a little bit harder.
At least I have this handy ruler to help. Another one of my 3-for-2 template purchases. This one was worth every penny and instantly easy to use. Plus, those little round things keep the fabric from moving. And how much do I love that extra 1/2″? A whole, whole lot.
Just need to remember, when switching between projects – cut 4.5″ for the Zs; cut 5″ for the CPQA…
Kinda Crafty 