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? ;)

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

SuperBowl Twist

Here's a logo for anyone doing the Superbowl Twist (or sewing anything with Bonnie's patterns) on Superbowl Sunday.



For the html code for the smaller 125 pixel blog button, like I've got in my sidebar, you're once again free to right click, select 'view source' then scroll down and copy the code that starts:

< !Begin SBTwist code>

and copy all the way to the end of

< !End SBTwist code>

Then put it in YOUR blog template sidebar, and you're ready to go!

Happy Twisting!

Mini Strip Twist and Bluejean Purse

I'm going to join Bonnie this Superbowl Sunday as she makes strip twist quilts. If you scroll down, you can see the one I made my brother, I've also made one all in pink for a 'Quilt Pink' theme. Click on the 'Take me to Quiltville' button if you want to see Bonnie's pattern and join us.

This little one is all in blues and white, and since I'm using teeny 1½ strips, I decided to start early. Here's the first 16 blocks done:


I have 64 blocks made so far, and I'm trying to decide if I want just the middle of the quilt to be twist blocks or if I want to cut more 1½ strips and expand this.

I've also been working on a little bluejean purse:


I bought the girls' size jeans at a thrift store for $3, then got a really filthy white vinyl purse at a garage sale for 50 cents... I ripped out all the zippers and useable hardware for this purse, aren't the little brass D rings and clips on the handle cute? A lady at work says they make the jean purse look like a 'real' purse lol.


I had the black star fabric strips left from the border of a quilt, to make the belt, and the beads were left over from another project too. I made another back pocket-flap with a velcro tab just like this one, but decided that two flaps were overkill. Now I'm thinking of beading a little star or heart on the pocket with no flap, what'cha think?


The hardest part of the whole purse was putting in the zipper - I'm bad about tossing my purse on the passenger seat of my van, so I had to have a way to close it securely or I'd be losing change and pens and pencils. :D I couldn't sew the zipper on with the machine around the big lumpy jeans button, OR around the beltloops, so I've still got some hand sewing to do there.

Row Quilt

Well, instead of block of the month swaps for my guild this year, I've decided to try a doing a row quilt with them instead. Everyone will get to keep their own blocks, and I'll be putting up different blocks and rows each month. They can choose from three widths, 36, 60, or 72, and they can choose their own colors/themes too, Quilt Pink, Quilt of Valor, baby quilt, holiday quilt, or one to fit with their house decor.

First, I played in EQ and drew a few row quilts in different color combos, with blocks I liked. If any of you has any ideas for blocks that work good in a row quilt, I'm still open to suggestions, I'm going to pick each row as I go.

Here's one in Red, White, and Blue:


And then one in baby colors, mostly Pink and Blue:


And one with a black background, for people whose favorite quilt word is 'pop' and who enjoy brights:


I picked a really easy spacer row for the first month, January... to sucker them in, sorta. Simple quarter-square triangles, and they could choose whatever layout they wanted:



Then I chose the basket row for February. I'd appreciate feedback on the web page if you have a chance to go look - that one got a little complicated - do you understand all the steps? Did it get too wordy? Here's my finished baskets:

4th File, 4th Photo

Hmm, I saw this blog-game on the blog after mine in the Stash Quilts blogring, Marcie at Patchalot More, and it sounded interesting. The rules say:

*Go to the fourth photo file on your computer
*Choose the fourth picture in that file
*post it and explain
*tag four people to do the same

So, curious, off I went to my photo files, to see what was the 4th file... I've taken a lot of photos, so my files were pretty nested, files within files. Is the librarian in me showing? After Catpix, Familypix, and HouseandGardenpix there came Quiltpix. And the 4th file in THAT (after BOMpix, MiscPix, and Quilts2004) was Quilts2005. The 4th cropped and named picture in the file was this one:



Brings back fond memories! This is my oldest brother, Dan, holding a quilt I gave to him back in 2005, around Thanksgiving. He liked it a lot, but I think his wife is the one that uses it the most. :) It was also the first one of Bonnie's patterns I tried, her Strip Twist.

I picked all the fabrics I didn't really like - my favorite color is forest green, so I pulled out all the olive toned greens, ikk. There were a lot of wine and burgundy and mustard FQ, and they made the pile too... then some 'ugly' pale colors. The ugliest one I remember was a beige with brown streaks and smears on it ... one of my brothers said the brown streaks looked like underwear 'skidmarks' -ewww! After that comment, that's all I could think when I saw that fabric!

Since I was making a guy quilt, I took out anything floral, then added back in a couple of blues, some prints with leaves and apples... till I had a mix I could live with. Even though it was all fabric I didn't like individually, I was pleased with the end result. :)

Now the rules say for me to tag 4 people - if you feel like playing, consider yourself tagged! Then let me know you're playing so I can go look.

Quiltville and Bonnie's Groupies

A message for all the other Quiltville fans out there! I think Bonnie's so terrific to give us all those patterns free - and I'm delighted that her first book is already in it's second printing. She does so much for us, I wanted to do something for her - and what better than to advertise and send a little traffic to her site?

So for those of us who love Quiltville, here are some free buttons that you can put on your own blog or website. First, a logo in red, for those of us with light colored blog backgrounds:


And then a logo with white background, for those of you with a dark blog background:



Here they are in a nice little 125 pixel size, that's the same width as the stash quilts, heartstrings, and quilt mavericks ring code sidebar items:





If you'd like to copy the html for the link, feel free to right-click on my blog and select 'view source' to take what you need. Scroll down, and you'll see a bit that starts < !-- BEGIN Quiltville code -- > copy from that till you see < !-- END Quiltville code -- > and stick it in your sidebar. ;)

Little Wallhanging

Remember the 250 half square triangles I made back in October for the guild mystery? Everyone else made 2 inch hsts, but I made 1 inch ones, to make a smaller version. This is what it turned out to be:


I changed the pattern by adding an inner border that extends the brown diamonds - I liked the points 'closed' rather than open at the outer edge. Then added 4 pinwheels made from leftover blocks in the corners.

My problem is that I can't decide how to quilt it. I heard that curved quilting designs show off geometric piecing, but I'm not sure how I'd apply that here. I could quilt in the ditch or a quarter inch in, along the inside of those diamonds, emphasizing the diagonal lines... but then what? Any suggestions? There's not much room to quilt inside individual triangles, although I do have cream, green and brown thread. All input appreciated!

Batiks!

I fell off the fabric no-buy bandwagon, and fell hard. But it IS all three yard lengths, which falls under the borders, backings and binding rule, right? *rationalizing* It's mainly FQ's I don't need any more of.

Phillyfabrics, on eBay, sells Timeless Treasure batiks and other fabric for only $3.33 per yard, in three yard increments. She doesn't charge more than she has to for shipping, either. Not sure what I will do with the cat fabric on the bottom right, but fell in love with it. :) I have lots of browns and blues that will go great with it, plus it looks great with the dark brown that's on top of it.


And here's the two I've unfolded, ready to wash (yes, I wash all my fabric before I use it, even the batiks.) First a pink and purple with dragonflies and bugs, which goes great with the pinks above:


And an orange, yellow, and purple with blue curls, which also looks good with the yellow in the first picture:


And here's one of Toby, so you can get a kitty pix-fix in:


When I lay out my blocks to make photo instructions for the guild website block of the month page, I usually tilt the pressing board, putting the end of it up on my sewing machine. That helps me get a picture that's more evenly framed and not bigger at the top than at the bottom due to depth of field. I'd just finished taking pix for the row quilt bom for this month, and Toby insisted he had to sit there. He CAN'T be comfortable, his fuzzy little butt is about 4 inches higher than his head! :D

File Cabinet

Here's one of my Christmas presents... a file cabinet... assembly required. ;) I'd never put together any furniture before, so this was really a learning experience! It came in the box with nothing attatched, just boards and bolts and hardware. This picture came after I figured out which were the top and bottom and right and left cabinet rails, and how to tell them from the top and bottom and right and left drawer slides, AND if the little wheels went toward the front or back of the drawer:


The directions were most unhelpful. And unhelpful in three languages, too, so what you see there in the little black rectangles on page 4 that look like sufficient information actually says things like:

Unfinished Surface.
Surface non finie.
Superficie sin acabado.

Of all the things I could have been told about how to put this together, the fact that the unfinished surfaces go on the INside of the cabinet, not the OUTside of the cabinet... well, if you didn't intuitively know that, you shouldn't even be starting something like this. My favorite quote from the whole booklet:

This hole should be located here.
Ce trou devrait etre situe ici.
Este agujero debe estar ubicado aqui.


In addition to these bits and pieces, there were 24 cam dowels and 24 hidden cams, 8 flat head phillips screws, and four support pins. Also not pictured, 4 non-swivel casters, three angle brackets, two drawer pulls, one designer medallion... And yes, I was singing that to the tune of 12 Days of Christmas... :D

But finally I got to page 15, and my lovely model Libby shows that it is together and sturdy enough to support a cat:


The only problem I have now is that it's ½ an inch too tall to put where I wanted to put it, under my computer desk. Now I've got to add 4 blocks under my computer desk to raise it ¾ of an inch so it'll fit.

More Gift-Making

Anyone else being a busy little Santa's helper? Here's three pillows for someone who said they wanted 'just a couple of plain pillows.' Do you know how hard it was for a quilter to make PLAIN pillows? But I can agree with her, they're to go with a scrappy, busy quilt, remember this one?


I had a few brick sized scraps left from the border of the quilt, so in addition to the two 16 inch square pillows she requested, she's getting a bonus 12 inch square pillow, the little not-plain one in the front. :D

And here's some gifts for co-workers:


More notebook covers and a hotpad. I actually made several more of these, but they all look the same. It's all completely from stash, and I chained my way through the log cabin style blocks for the hotpads, then stitched around the edge (including the batting) and turned them inside out to avoid having to bind them. That ethnic Santa fabric was hard to find, but it's a really pretty glittery fabric. The candycane pens add a nice touch, I think.

Then some glasses cases for family. Betcha can't guess which one of the three is for my older brother!


I'm using fleece or flannel for the inside lining of them, I tried quilting weight fabric, and the glue from the Timtex made it feel scratchy. I'm learning some heirloom sewing techniques too - can you see on the right, below, my first try at pintucks? And on the front, above, an embroidered rose. It reminds me of the little rose I used to have on the middle of my bras, back in high school. :D


And just for those who didn't notice... did you see that the camouflage fabric isn't quite... the usual camo? If you look close, you see that the shapes are silhouettes of nekkid ladies:


I'm sure my brother will appreciate it!

Christmas Presents and Totebag Story

Well, I took my two new totebags to the grocery yesterday, and asked the checker if they still gave discounts if you use your own bags. "Yes, Ma'am!" she replied, counted my totes, and punched in my discount. Then she put them on the conveyor belt to send to the bagger... who promptly folded them neatly into thirds and put them in a plastic bag for me. :D

In his defense, he said they looked new and he thought I was getting them as a gift for someone... lol They worked very well, though, and were especially nice for carrying the cans of soup and other heavy things.

I've also been making some Christmas gifts, totally from stash. First, a little crayon apron - I have pencils in the pockets now, but the slots will fit 16 crayons when fully loaded:


I'd been wondering what I could make with this big flower print FQ since I got it as part of a FQ exchange - and the apron worked great, one FQ made both front and lining. Add the crayons and a coloring book, and it's a perfect gift for a six year old girl.

And some little notebook covers, one from a bluejean leg, one in heavy cotton. The denim one has a fringed skinny pocket next to the seam for a pen (I'll put a pretty gel pen there for giving) and the black with stars one has three ribbon loops to thread a pencil through to 'lock' the memo book closed:



Here they are open - they were very quick to do, just zig zagged the raw edges, and the cover slot is made from a 1½ inch strip of the same fabric, no lining. For the locking pen on the black one, sew one loop of ribbon to the front of the book, and two loops to the back of the book, so when it's closed, you go thru the back top loop, the front loop, then the bottom back loop.



And last, but not least, If you haven't been following Lindsay's adventure of actually MAKING a block every day from her block-a-day calendar, now's the time to watch as the end draws near. 365 days worth of completely different blocks... go offer some encouragement as she completes one year's worth:

SCHNOODLE'S Block-a-Day Epic!

Another Tote Done

Here's the second tote done, with a jungle themed print. Coated red canvassy stuff for the bottom and straps and pocket this time, don't know where I got it, but it's been in my fabric drawer forever. I'm doing these completely from stash, not buying a thing.


I quilt the top half of these before I sew the straps and pocket on. For batting, I'm using some flannel that started pilling the first time I washed it. I knew it wouldn't be good for a quilt border like I wanted, but for batting inside the tops of these totes, nobody will see it. Nothing fancy for the quilting either, I just lay down strips of masking tape in nice straight rows, and sew between the tape. You can barely see the lines of stitching if you click on the picture below.

My Siamese inspector is in just about the same position as last time. Predictable, isn't he? I hung both totes on the doorknob when I finished taking the picture above, and Toby was so sure I'd hidden something behind them, he had to check:

Autumn Totebag

In the interest of using less plastic bags, I've decided to use some of my excessive fabric stash and make some totes. Here's my first one, with a Fall theme:


The bottom, straps and pockets are an orangey denim, very stiff. I wanted something about the size of a standard paper grocery sack, but a little wider, with straps that I could hang on my shoulder. I also wanted it sturdy enough to carry cans, bottles of V-8 or fruit juice, etc.

I probably could have gotten this thing done faster if I'd had a pattern to follow, but all the patterns I saw weren't the right size, didn't have the heavyweight fabric on the bottom, or didn't go up the sides as far as I wanted. I'd hoped to have the straps meet at the bottom of the bag, maybe even go into the center bottom seam, but I wanted them long enough to go over my shoulder more than I wanted them to go all the way across the bottom.

My machine didn't like sewing on the thickness of the denim, especially when I made the straps and stitched them down over the sides of the pockets. I finished off the inside too, zig-zagging the edges of the denim so they wouldn't fray, and using bias tape to encase my two side seams.

Toby is the resident Siamese inspector you see in the picture. He has an oversize bump of curiosity and has to follow me from room to room wherever I go. He tells me I should have made it even bigger, to carry the LARGE size bag of MeowMix. :D

Thanksgiving pix

Well, here's my family, gathered together at Thanksgiving. First, the grand-nieces, I didn't ask for permission to use their names on the net, so I won't, but aren't they cute, even nameless?


My nephew Mike and his wife, Kelly:


Paula, who was also lurking around with her camera:


Fred, relaxing in his chair, after eating turkey and the trimmings. Notice the quilt in the bedroom, in the background:


The group shot of the folks that were there, minus me, taking the picture:


And last, to make this somewhat crafty, my mom holding a glasses case I made for her from a leg of her jeans and some timtex, for stiffening. I decorated the front with eyelet lace and ribbon:



Hope you had as nice of a Thanksgiving as I did!

Pipe Cleaner Elf and Ruler Holder

I just got back from our guild's November Retreat... and here's two things I finished there.

First, the quilting ruler holder for my living room, where I sew. All loaded with rulers, rotary cutters, triangles, and scissors. Only problem so far is the fact that it's covering part of the light switch. It's so heavy though, I couldn't just attach the shelf to the sheetrock, I wanted to go into the studs, and that's where it's got to hang.


Next, a pipe cleaner elf. She's hanging from my ceiling fan chain right now, and Libby's keeping a close eye on her - she adores pipe cleaners, it's her favorite cat toy of all. I plan to make a few more and take some to work, maybe even make Libby one all for herself. :)

Tomatoes in November?

When I planted three tomatoes way back in April 08, I had absolutely NO idea that I'd still be eating homegrown tomatoes from them in late November. How long does a tomato plant last, anyway? I brought these three indoors before the first freezing night was predicted. Here's the Goliath:


And here's the Better Boy plant:


And the Cherry tomato plant is producing best of all. Lots of blooms too! Now that they're indoors and I don't have to worry about the birds getting them, I can leave the tomatoes on the vine to redden, instead of picking them when they start to turn orangish. I ate three of them last night:




The cats don't seem to bother them at all. Toby takes a couple of long sniffs at them, then sneezes and walks away.

Baby Quilt

Here's what I've been working on lately, a baby quilt for a friend of my mother's. Sometimes I forget how quick and easy a quilt with no triangles or little pieces can be. This one's made of flannel, very nice and soft for a boy baby.


I cut the big squares at 8½ inches, the blue squares at 4½ inches, and strip pieced the little four-patches from strips cut 2½ inches... fast!