This is a static export of a blog I put on ice many years ago, that still has personally relevant content. No promises can be made around linkrot, styles, or working functionality.
I haven’t been sewing much in the past week or two, but I have made a bit of progress on the Organic Spins quilt. Most of the hybrid-pieced-to-applique pinwheels are complete, and I’ve spent a lot of time with the iron pressing under edges of some of the smaller ones that are just going to be made of triangles with no piecing.
But somewhere along the way, I found that I might be a bit masochistic at heart, because for some strange reason, I’ve decided that I should hand applique them all down. I’m not sure why my brain would insist upon this course of action, since I am not hand-sewing’s biggest fan (an understatement), but it hasn’t been that bad, thus far. It certainly has allowed me to not be tethered to my machine.
I’ve seen a few gift card holder projects popping up lately (for instance, Julie from Jaybird Quilts has one in Quilting Arts Magazine). Well, once again, I missed a niece’s birthday, and another is coming up in a week and a half (sisters), and since I have plans to make crafty things for them for Christmas, I thought I’d go with my fall-back gift card plan for now. And, I was inspired to whip up a fabric holder for them.
So, with the help of three charms from various charm packs I had on hand, a bit of flannel (or interfacing, if you prefer, for stiffness), 4″ of ribbon and a button each:
I made two different holders to add to their cards. (more…)
I’m evidently stuck on designing with pinwheels lately, so when I was thinking about how to make the quilt currently titled “Organic Spins”, pinwheels popped to mind yet again. As the design progressed in my head, however, I realized that I didn’t want a ton of seams in the background of the quilt. So, the idea of making a whole-cloth quilt with appliqued pinwheels came about. But, it still requires piecing part of the pinwheel together before being able to applique it on.
Last week, I played around with some scrap fabric to make a proof of concept. I finally cut into my fabric and started piecing at the Utica Modern Quilt Guild meeting/sew-together on Saturday.
Here’s the final product:
This one finishes at about 10.75″ across. It’s the middle of three different sizes I’m using (well, plus one much teenier size that will be paper pieced). (more…)
I’ve made enough progress on my WIP list from July that I feel comfortable starting a new project, finally. And, it’s one I’m keeping.
This one has been in my brain since the end of May, when we traveled to Missouri and I got the chance to stop at Sew To Speak Shoppe in Columbus, OH (I’m in love and want to move there, just for this shop). Among my purchases was a small FQ stack of Cut Out & Keep by Heather Moore for Cloud9 Fabrics. (more…)
The current SYWTQ topic is sewing curved seams, so we are doing drunkard’s path.
Pulling out a small pack of FQs that my not-legally mother-in-law gave me, I decided to give it a whirl tonight, even though our current homework assignment is simply to think about the layout and fabrics to use.
From my research, there are a couple of circle-cutting rulers that can be used for drunkard’s path, not to mention a plethora of shape-specific templates. Fan that I am of Omnigrid (all my rulers are by them), I thought I’d give the OmniArc a try. (more…)
So, I pulled out the psudo–jelly-roll of Lollipop that I bought in March and made this:
I began with an idea based on the Jelly-roll Race 1 Choice 4 Quilting sponsored a few months ago. However, my fabric wasn’t exactly a jelly-roll. It was a roll of scraps from a LQS. The tag said it was 43 strips, 2.5″ × 22″. So, sort of like half a jelly-roll, except instead of half the number of strips, it was a full roll of half-length strips. (more…)
If you happen to be my sister, and happen to be older than me, and your name happens to start with an ‘S’, don’t read any further. You’ll see this in person soon enough.
The sun was peeking out just enough for photos this morning, so I finally shot the Synchronized Squares quilt! Above-mentioned sister is perhaps a little obsessed with frogs, so Prince Charming by Tula Pink and a selection of green prints from various lines—as well as a few solids in green and complimentary colors (including a corduroy!)—made a great choice for this. (more…)
This update is brought to you by random photos of projects that I have on my cell phone. At first, I wasn’t planning on quilting the Synchronized Squares quilt or the Strip-pieced Lone Star/Star of Bethlehem quilt until later in the year, because they are both Christmas presents.
But then I got my hands on a spool of white Aurifil and decided to do the Synchronized Squares quilt last week. I basted it and quilted it Friday evening. It went pretty quickly. I even washed and dried it, then couldn’t resist snuggling under it a bit. But it’s been pouring rain and generally overcast ever since, so I haven’t been able to photograph it yet.
Hopefully the weather will improve later this week, as I’d like to photograph it and send it off. I decided not to wait for Christmas, as I don’t generally give this family member Christmas presents anyway.
I was actually quite productive over the weekend. I pieced most of the back for the Strip-pieced Lone Star/Star of Bethlehem quilt, although I had to stop before I finished, because it was just all going wrong on Friday night and I needed to step away. It happens.
Then, I managed to finish the top and back of the Synchronized Squares quilt, but don’t have photos of either, thanks to the torrential rain we received Sunday courtesy Irene.
As of last night, it’s all sitting on the back of the couch ready for me to baste it. I just couldn’t bring myself to crawl around on the floor, not to mention my painter’s tape seems to have disappeared. (more…)
I’ve been abandoning the Farmer for a few weeks… hopefully I’ll get back to it soon, but I just haven’t been feeling it. This week, during the time I’d normally spend on those blocks, I decided to whip up a bag for my youngest niece’s birthday, which is tomorrow. (My cards are never on time. Bad Aunt Rachael.)
I’d like to say I have a tutorial in the works, but inspiration hit, I started working and an hour and a half or so later (plus time to bandage a knuckle—my brand new 28mm rotary cutter does not have the safety features I take for granted on my larger one!), I had a finished purse. (more…)
