Quilt Ruler Storage

Well, I finished the heart on the churndash block the day before the guild meeting... nothing like a deadline to make me get it done. :D But I do like the way it came out, I'll have to remember it for the next time I do a baby quilt:


I quilt in my living room, so I wanted some neat way to store all my squares and rulers and small mats. It needed to look nice and match my living room colors. This is what I came up with:



I planned it around all my ruler sizes. The little bargello block fits those odd shaped triangles, and under it, a pocket for my 6 and 6½ inch squares. Under THAT, a pocket for either my rotary cutter or scissors. On the right, a big pocket for my 12½ square, my rotating cutting mat, and the big triangle shaped kaleido-ruler from Marti Michell. The long skinny pocket along the bottom, made from the log cabin squares, holds my 18 x 3 and 18 x 4 rulers, (one printed in black and one printed in yellow, quilters understand why you need both) plus a couple of EZ angle rulers, one 60° and one 45°. The backing fabric has 4 layers of interfacing instead of batting, so it folds, but it's pretty stiff.

Only one problem, it's really heavy when it's fully loaded, I've got to find a sturdy way to hang it. I want to be able to take it down if I ever have non-quilting guests come over, so I can't just hammer a nail in the four corners. :-D

I originally had five loops at the top that fit over a hanging rod, but the fabric sagged in between, so I took them off. Now I'm thinking a sturdy thick dowel, in a hanging pocket with a couple of gaps, and I'll put some of those coated mug hooks up to put the dowel in. Then maybe I can come up with something else to fit on the cup hooks when company comes... lol

Any other suggestions?

Website Updates

Well, haven't been doing too much quilting lately, mostly been watching the Olympics and working on web pages.

But I have made one block, here's the EQ design for my guild's block of the month. They could choose any shade of yellow, and any blue to make the six inch churn dash, then applique a red, pink, burgundy or maroon heart (or two) on it:


And the block I've made, but haven't appliqued the heart on yet, mostly because I dislike hand sewing. I think I'll do one heart with that pink fabric on the bottom of the picture:



If you want directions to it, it's on the bom page of my guild's website:

Churn Dash Heart

I've also been working on my own website, updating the contents page. Check it out if you like cats telling jokes. My favorite is the Matta Baby joke:

ForestJane's site

And I decided to try to collect all the pictures of my quilts and put them on my personal website, one or two pictures per quilt, to make a record of what I've done, quiltwise. It's a bit more complicated than it sounds, because I may have started a quilt in early 2005, and spent most of that year on it, sent it off to be quilted in November, then got it back and bound and finished it in Feb. of 2006... so does it belong on the 2005 page or the 2006 page? Right now the page is both years.

Quilt Record

I'll be working on this for many nights yet to come, I think.

Tomato Update and Chickens

Here's the latest status on my tomatoes... there are 19 cherry tomatoes, and 9 that are close to the size of a tennis ball on down to egg sized ones. And I ate a medium size one for lunch, on my sandwich. :)

Don't tell, but half of the ones in the bowl are destined to meet their end tonight, in my salad. :D


I've also been making sample chickens for the "Fowl Play" class I'm teaching at my quilt guild's retreat in November. Here's the one I call Spring Chicken, made with floral fabrics. All her half square triangles are leftover from mitering binding. I plan to add eyelashes, earrings and a necklace. She insisted on a closeup, she's such a diva:


These next two I'd like to introduce you to are Tom Turkey and his wife, Plain Jane. Jane is made from 4½ inch squares, and Tom's made from a couple 4 patch blocks with a grandmother's fan tail. Both of them are stuffed with a mix of polyfil and split green peas.


I also wanted to show that they could be made larger (I used two 6 inch orphan blocks) and not in 'chicken colors' so here's a bird made of blue fabric and stuffed with rice... so she's the Country Chicken with Rice, naturally. :) I'm trying to think of a double-barreled name for her... Rae Ella? Emma Lou? any suggestions?


These last three chicks are made from 3 inch squares, and went together really fast. They're my protest group... :D I decided to make the signs folded cards, with a pocket where I can slip them over the popsicle stick when I want to change their message.


Then, if I made new computer cards, I could use them in the library display case, they could say... REED MOR BOOK
or maybe instead... SPEL MOR BETR, next to a display of grammar books and dictionaries.