Wednesday, February 25, 2009

Row Quilt, Row 3

Houses and Trees!

Row three for our guild's block of the month row quilt is up! This row is the one the members will be working on for March, here's the instructions, - I'm going to stay a row ahead.

I give folks the option of using any color palette they want, mine will be in browns and greens and creams... Here's my EQ coloring:


But if they want to make it bright and scrappy, that's ok too! So I colored one for the bright folks. As I was playing with the brights version, I kept singing that beatles song - the one about tangerine trees and marmalade skies:


Here's mine in fabric - I added the last green strip along the bottom after all my blocks were connected, but it' didn't make the picture.



I also gave links if folks wanted to use Tonya's Wonky Houses that are linked on Quiltville instead, so it'll be interesting to see what everyone's row looks like next guild meeting!

Monday, February 16, 2009

Top Finished

Another top finished... to add to the other tops that are done but not quilted... :D This one, I'd like to add an extra layer of batting under the two hearts, and see if I could get a heart feather design put on them, to make kind of a trapunto effect. Looks pretty much like the EQ design, doesn't it?


Now I need to go start making backs for all these unquilted tops, and maybe I'll send them off to the longarmer.

Monday, February 09, 2009

Smaller Tote

Now that I've been using my big totes to carry stuff home from the grocery, I'm getting less plastic bags... which is good, but I was in the habit of using one of those plastic bags every day to carry my lunch, to work. I also used them to line the small trashcans in the bedroom and bathroom... now my supply is dwindling. So I decided to make a smaller tote the size of the plastic shopping bags:


I still get plastic bags at the store (I tell them to put my raw meat in plastic, I don't want it to leak on my big totes) plus things like bread, bagels, squishable stuff doesn't work in the big totes. Anyway, I looked online, and found lots of free patterns for a smaller tote. Here's the pattern I used for the shopping bag itself and here's the site I used for the folding pocket.

I made the solid green pocket to fit a 1 liter bottle of water, and I wanted the main tote big enough for a Healthy Choice or Lean Cuisine (what I take to lunch every day) plus an orange or a yogurt, a diet coke, a book or two, a sewing project... etc. :)


And here's the neat part - when empty, you can roll the bag up, and that same pocket that holds the liter bottle becomes a wallet type closure, so I can remember to put it in my purse and take it home.


Now that I've made a utility one for my first attempt, I think I'll get my pretty batiks out and make a fancy one. :) That flap that laps over the pocket to close it all up was a little long, it's not a tight roll like it could be. I also think I'll put a teeny snip of velcro on the bottom so the flap doesn't hang loose - like you can see it does on the doorknob pic.

Saturday, February 07, 2009

Heart Twist Progress

Now the top and bottom delectable mountain borders have been added:



And I've even taken apart the nine patch border bits I'd finished so far, plus made some strip sets with pink in them. I'd much rather sew than unsew, wouldn't you? ;)

Friday, February 06, 2009

Heart Twist

This is what I've been working on lately - remember the little 4 block sample I showed for the Superbowl Twist a couple of posts back? I've done Bonnie's Strip Twist in 1½ strips for the middle, then her Delectable Mountains in 1½ strips will be for the next pieced border, and I'm partway thru sewing a bunch of nine-patches from 1½ strips for the outer pieced border.


I have the top and bottom row of mountains completed, but just finished with the machine applique of the hearts last night.

Here's the EQ version of what I am planning the whole quilt to look like:



I'd thought I was going to do the quilt in faded denim blues and whites with blue, but it was calling for an applique in the middle. First I pulled out my reds, and almost went with a bandanna print, but the red looked too bright against the blue. When I opened the pink drawer, thinking maybe some medium pinks wouldn't look as stark as the red, this mauve seemed to slither right into my hands.

Then I had to go back to EQ and add pink borders and some dots of pink in the nine patches. Unfortunately, I've already sewn lots of nine patch strips as leader-enders while I was doing the strip twists and mountains, so I've got a little unsewing to do, do add some pink in here and there.

Anyone want to unsew for me? :D
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