Twisted Sister – Fabric and Pattern

Yeah…don’t really have a clever name for this one! It’s for my sister’s co-worker and it twists. So… I do like it an awful lot, though. I sent my sister a couple ideas and she picked this one. She asked for floral-type fabrics, which I don’t usually pick. Faye from Prairie Quilt helped a ton!

The fussy-cut center squares are Moda Glace by Three Sisters, Verglas Green Bouquet. The other green is also Moda Glace, Verglas Green Morning. The beige is Dimples by Andover Fabrics, and the pink is Itsy Bits by Andover. The border (unpictured) is the Green Morning, the binding will be the Itsy Bits pink, and the backing is Shangri-la by Three Sisters.  And even though I don’t normally go for floral prints like this, I’m starting to like Three Sisters!

Probably any experienced quilter is going to say “duh” – but I knew I was going to be slicing off a lot of these corners, so I sewed a quick second seam on each one so I’d have leftover half square triangles “pre-made.”

What? I don’t see that empty carpet right next to the blocks you’re laying out, Mom. What do you mean, can’t I lick myself a foot to the right?

New-to-Me Janome MC10000

This is my March surprise! Okay, it’s not really a surprise to anyone since I haven’t stopped talking about it. I’ve been looking into buying a new sewing machine, possibly a sewing/embroidery machine. But oh man, the cost. I was trying to decide between a new Pfaff sewing-only, or waiting for a used dual machine, when my sister stumbled on this one.

It’s a Janome MC10000 from someone who upgraded to the MC11000. I think I hesitated about thirty seconds before saying “yes yes yes I want it!!” And she sent the stabilizer table seen above, and four hoops, and four or five embroidery cards with it. Not to mention the feet.

All these plus another couple I found at the top of the machine. I think I’ve identified all but three at this point. Pin tucking, check. Gathering, check. Three sizes of rolled hems, check. Cording, piping, zipper, buttons, check, check, check and double check. Quarter-inch quilting foot? No check. Thank goodness there’s a machine dealer in town! And the zig-zag foot has a quarter inch marking on it, I think. Still need to go measure.

And yeah, I haven’t a clue how to use this sucker. It has three manuals! Terrifying! But I’m still going to try it out, because it’s National Quilting Day. 🙂 Really. I’m not going to spend the whole day online, shopping for quilting embroidery patterns. And definitely won’t spend the whole day waffling over the Love U jelly roll on someone’s Etsy page. (It’s on sale! Totally justified! Just because it’s for my cousin’s twins and I haven’t even finished big sister’s quilt yet doesn’t mean I can’t shop…)

Zebra Cupcakes

The Wee One’s birthday fell on on Z week at school, and his teacher issued me the challenge of zebra cupcakes. She doesn’t know my sister is talented in the cupcake cake arena. A quick bit of Googling led to this post on Cupcakes Take the Cake. No, I don’t think anyone knows what the heck is up with the egg and bacon cupcake with it.

It starts with a cupcake iced in white…

…stick a mini Nilla wafer in…

…pipe black icing all over the Nilla, stripes on the sides and a thicker stripe on the top…

…hand it over to your soon-to-be-five-year-old with regular and mini M&Ms. Tell him to use brown (regulars) for the ears, brown (minis) for the nose and colored (minis) for the eyes…

…realize that soon-to-be-five-year-olds are fascinated by colors and you should just be happy to get the right number of M&Ms on the cupcakes.

We’ll Make a Lovely Quilt for Cinderelly

With massive apologies to Mack David, Jerry Livingston, and Al Hoffman.

[Girl mice:]
We can do it, we can do it
We can help our Cinderelly
We can make her quilt so pretty
There’s nothing to it, really
We’ll tie a sash around it
Put a ribbon through it
When snuggling in the fall
She’ll be more beautiful than all
In the lovely quilt we’ll make for Cinderelly

Hurry, hurry, hurry, hurry
Gonna help our Cinderelly
Got no time to dilly-dally
We gotta get a-goin’

[Gus:]
I’ll cut with these scissors!

[Jack:]
And I can do the sewing!

[Girl Mouse:]
Leave the sewing to the women
You go get some bindin’
And we’ll make a lovely quilt for
Cinderelly!

[Girl mice and Gus:]
We’ll make a lovely quilt for
Cinderelly!

This quilt is for my sister. She bought some Cinderella fabric a long time ago (no, I don’t know where!) and purple gingham with the plan to just quilt them together, somehow. And then I got my hands on it. And some sparkly princess fabric from Hobby Lobby. And some princess panels from my quilting teacher. (Anyone want Sleeping Beauty and Snow White?) I also bought several bits of purple fabric for possible backgrounds.

I spent an afternoon fussy cutting out all the scenes, adding up to eleven individual and completely different sized pieces. I decided to lay them out in a 3×4 grid, and I’ll make a glass slipper for the last panel and embroider the quote, “One Shoe Can Change Your Life.” All the pieces are under 12″ square, so I think it will be easiest to square them all to that. And by easiest, I mean, I have to do how much math? Good thing Mom is on her way out here!

Problem is, which fabric for the background?

This was my original thought, playing off her original gingham. Large checks for the background, small for the sashing and borders. But I’m not sure I have enough large checks… And also, it looks like purple threw up on my floor. Which, for her, isn’t actually a bad option.

Other options include big checks, pink starry flowers, dark purple stars, or little checks. I like the contrast of the two starry fabrics (and there’s stars on the scenes to match), but I’m not sure I have enough. I’m pretty sure I can hunt down more, but that involves hunting. For even more purple fabrics.

And also, secretly, I want a purple scrolly fabric I saw at Prairie Quilt. I want it so bad it might end up being the sashing and borders, despite the piles of purple in my stash.

So just with creating the 12″ squares, the quilt is 48×36. Add in 3″ borders and sashing and it’s 63×48. Which is a lovely lap quilt size and fits perfectly with my planned back. And oh, you’re gonna want to see my planned back.

Happy Dr. Seuss Week!

Did you eat your green eggs and ham? Would you, could you, in a house? With a mouse?

In honor of Dr. Seuss, the Wee One’s show-and-tell tomorrow is Seussian. I suggested an elephant (I meant what I said, and I said what I meant. An elephant’s faithful, one hundred percent.) or two fish from his fishing set (One Fish Two Fish, Red Fish Blue Fish.)

But nooooooooooooo, the Wee One’s special toy is Kitty. And Kitty wants to be the Cat in the Hat. (Which is, for the record, my least favorite Seuss book.) So we stopped at Hobby Lobby at 7 pm and grabbed two pieces of felt. Thirty minutes later, I realize I should have gotten more white for the brim, but oh well. For a last-minute thing, it works.

We looked! Then we saw him
Step in on the mat!
We looked! And we saw him!
The Cat in the Hat!

Yummy Apron

Another gift for the Gator, this time for her birthday. This one wasn’t about the design, but the yummy, yummy fabric. Couldn’t you just eat it up? It just screams “make an apron out of me!” It’s Just Desserts by Diane Knott for Clothworks, but I can’t find a photo online. I bought it at Jackman’s in Fairview Heights, IL.

There’s nothing special about the apron design – it’s a basic chef’s apron to showcase the fabric, with a ruffle on top. (I’m never doing ruffles again without a ruffler/gatherer foot for my machine. Just so you know. But since I’ve got bunches of patterns that need gathering and ruffles, guess what I’m buying?)

I did cut and pin and sew it very carefully to make the sprinkle row continue on. Because I’m that anal awesome.

My Cabbage Patch Kid, Dorothy Kathryn, models the matching doll apron. Yes, she’s an original from the 80s, and yes, the Wee One does not appreciate her. The Gator adopted my sister’s CPK, though, so Dorothy Kathryn will be a model a lot.

After it was done, I realize the neck loop was way too big (a hint: it fit over my head) so I ended up slicing it in half and quick hemming it before putting it in the mail.

Now I just have to figure out what to do with the extra half yard…. It doesn’t go with my kitchen (though Diane Knott’s Caffeine Cafe does!)