3.20.11

Well, I managed to finish 2 items this week. This one was started last and finished first... I call it my Scowl of Doom (it's a scarf-like thing that I made into a mobius cowl). It is made out of some of my first handspun, actually my first hand dyed, personally drum carded, hand spun yarn. I'm pretty proud of it. All the yarn was dyed and/or spun at separate times, there was no planning involved in getting any of it to match. Worked out pretty damned well.



The second project, I'm really kinda embarrassed about this one. I cast this project on in March... of 2008. It is now March 2011. 3 years for a pair of fingerless mitts? Bad me, no biscuit! It is made from Sundara yarn Silky Merino in the colorway "Bittersweet". I got it for my birthday in 2007.

3.12.11

I'm making a goal to post at least once a week.

November 2010. For the lovely Aimee, she asked for a very specific block and sent pieces that were pretty much already pre-cut. All I had to do was assemble them. It felt very much like cheating.


December 2010 Jan 2011. This was a 2 month block in order to give people time to do the blocks around the holidaze. I was done on January 1st. Bringing quilting into the new year, baybee!



February's block for NutellaNutterson officially hurt my brain. Random is hard for me to do... but random AND wonky? Yeah. But! After I finished it, I liked the end product enough to consider doing a small lap sized throw in the far future.



I haven't gotten the fabric in for March's block yet... I'm supposed to be next in line for AmysBabies, and the block is a TARDIS block! I can't wait :)

What's black & white & red all over? - Sashed Disappearing 9Patch

So I got this wild hair to make a black, white and red quilt somewhere around twin size for my loveseat. It gets cold in my house in the winter because it's not well insulated AND it's a raised foundation house.

I picked/stashed this fabric because I thought it'd make a good spiderweb. I didn't much care for that. *sigh* So, back to my inspiration...

My bathroom is black & white with red walls. My living room is sand walls with black trim. I kinda wanted to blend it together a bit. Not much, just a bit. Besides, I think the colors of the quilt will suit me. So this is what I decided to do... a disappearing 9 patch block that, instead of just being rotated and re-sewn, is sashed between the pieces. This block measures 18 inches unfinished, so 17 1/2 inches finished. However, each block will be sashed between blocks, not just between pieces.

I will only be doing a block or two a month of these. I just don't have enough time to do everything I want to do... LOL.

October Block - LSG Quilters' Bee

So I needed to make a block for the LSG quilters' bee. The first block that I was assigned was for FidgetKnits. She chose a monochromatic madness quilt block that measure 16 1/2 inches finished, with starting squares at 5 inches. Those are made into half square triangles. The colors she choose are scrappy yellows and a charcoal gray background fabric.



Gah it was such a pain in the butt. Why? For several reasons, actually. First, HSTs are notoriously unstable. They are sewn across the grain (these were constructed using this tutorial which is great, but I'm sorry, as soon as you cut them and press, they are across the grain and will warp at a moment's notice). They are constructed in lines of 4 and sewn together as such. Every block had to be individually trimmed every time it was sewn because of warping. If I have to do it again, I will soak the fabric in starch (not sizing, super heavy starch) in order to prevent as much warping as possible.

However, the quilt will most likely be very nice when she gets it done. One other thing... she sent 16 squares (she sent them as 6 1/2 inches, I had to cut each individual one down to 5 inches). Because she wanted 16 individual blocks in the 4x4 formation, that means that I had to do the tutorial 16 times. That means that there are in actuality 32 HST blocks made. I only pressed and used the first 16. The second batch of 16 (the repeats, if you will), are in a baggie and sent back with the block I sewed. She will mix and match the 16 left with the batches that others will send back.

So glad that one is over, and am 100% certain that I will NOT be sewing an entire quilt top using this technique. LOL

Stashing with a purpose - 10.07.10

So today my mom sends me an email titled "Hancocks?" This is our code phrase for "Can you drive me to Hancock Fabrics after work today so I can spend money on fabric, and you get at least a yard of something for putting up with me in the fabric store and giving me your honest opinion of whatever I put in my cart." Of course, y'all should know that unless it is a class night, the answer is usually "Sure!" :) I also got paid back a bit of money for a small loan that I gave out a couple months back (it was a micro-loan, not much of a loan, and I honestly didn't expect to get anything back at all so I never budgeted for it), so I hatched a plan.

Sarabande on the LSG "Quilters' Bee" (both of those links are Ravelry links) decided to do a "Spiderweb" quilt block as her block pattern. I've been rather obsessed with the idea since then, knowing I was going to end up picking fabric and queuing it up for sometime in the vague-ish future. So. I'd been spinning around in my head going "if I was given a choice... what would I choose?"

What's black, white, and red all over?

Why, my Spiderweb block choice!

I'll stop by Joann's on Saturday to see if I can find anymore black & white prints for the outside of the spiderweb blocks. The center color is that rich red, which is an "easily attainable" Kona cotton (which I will pick up more of this Saturday... they have 3 more full bolts of it).

Amysbabies on the same group has come up with another idea (and she even drew it up, made a template, etc!) that I'm going to borrow and distort... later. One thing at a time, grasshoppa... I already have two in progress, I need to finish piecing the blue/yellow one so I can get it off to the quilter (and be one step closer to getting it off my conscious).

Wild Hair

I actually made 2 of the 4 Dia de los Muertos blocks in the same night... just now thought about putting them together for a kind of "idea" of what the blocks will look like. I'll still do it again when I have the other 2 blocks finished so people will really *know* what it will look like.

I laid in bed this morning debating where I want to put a flannel sheet so I can practice layouts with blocks. Sad, huh? I should have been sleeping... but I wasn't. I was thinking about where to put my layout setup, since this house is way different (and much smaller) than the last house that I pieced quilt tops in.

This is my "scrap box". I have a rule that any scrap I keep has to be able to be cut into a 2 1/2 inch strip of some length. So far, everything has been in shades of yellows, golds, light browns, and other various "autumn" shades. So when I went to my parents' house to pick up my daughter tonight after class and saw this print on my mom's shelf (far left) and there was enough of it to be the 3 inch square center of the paper pieced log cabin blocks... yeah. I may have snatched the fabric and ran. Actually, Mom said I could use it... so no guilt! I'm going to trade her a hand dyed green cotton that I have that I was planning to use as this focal square, but lacked about a quarter yard for... she'll like that :) Oh, and a purple fabric. I am not a big fan of purple in large quantities.

These blocks have no time limit. I'll just do one whenever I feel like it, which is fine by me (and everybody else...)

Practice String Quilt Blocks

They are eye searingly cute, at least in my mind! I know quite a few people are going to HATE working on them because they are so LOUD, but they can "expand their horizons" and all that jazz.

12.5 inch paper pieced block based on this tutorial.

Because of the number of blocks I need for the quilt size I want, I will be piecing 4/month while people piece 1/month. After I piece the others for this month, I will post what they look like together. Maybe then people will get the "idea" of what it will look like when finished. I think it's totally awesome so far... but then again, I'm probably biased. LOL