I arranged and rearranged those tiny 2" HST's every time I walked by it, pulled strips off and put some back on, begged for polka dot scraps, and now it's ready for binding.
Feels like it might just be a productive week!
Monday, July 28, 2014
A sneak peek...
This has been on my design wall (or rather, a piece of batting clamped to the frame of a large picture on my kitchen wall) since May, which is quite a long time, though not as long as I would have expected. My WIP's can stretch out for months, if not years.
I arranged and rearranged those tiny 2" HST's every time I walked by it, pulled strips off and put some back on, begged for polka dot scraps, and now it's ready for binding.
Feels like it might just be a productive week!
I arranged and rearranged those tiny 2" HST's every time I walked by it, pulled strips off and put some back on, begged for polka dot scraps, and now it's ready for binding.
Feels like it might just be a productive week!
Monday, July 21, 2014
Never say never again...
I've been curious about fabric bowls for a while -- there are some really cool examples out in the blogosphere, and I like the looks you can achieve with different fabrics. In an effort to procrastinate on a dozen other projects, I picked this weekend to see what they were all about.
In a post-coffee mania Saturday morning, I pulled a confetti print linen blend from my stash and started slicing. Eight hours later, I was still zig-zagging, only about two-thirds of the way done. My back was killing me from tailbone to shoulders, my hands deformed into claws from incessant wrapping -- this was not the easy-peasy project I envisioned when I began.
After another couple ibuprofen-fueled hours on Sunday, I got tired of trimming a gazillion stray threads and switched to the purple cotton, which frayed far less -- however, because of the weight difference, the purple needed to be double-wrapped to keep the coil size consistent.
Lots of lessons learned (for instance, if you're going to "experiment," don't start with a project the size of a 6-quart dutch oven), but the biggest one is that I will never make another one of these again. I know I shouldn't say that, but I'm pretty sure now that I've done it, I don't need to repeat the process. Ever.
Curiosity satisfied.
In a post-coffee mania Saturday morning, I pulled a confetti print linen blend from my stash and started slicing. Eight hours later, I was still zig-zagging, only about two-thirds of the way done. My back was killing me from tailbone to shoulders, my hands deformed into claws from incessant wrapping -- this was not the easy-peasy project I envisioned when I began.
After another couple ibuprofen-fueled hours on Sunday, I got tired of trimming a gazillion stray threads and switched to the purple cotton, which frayed far less -- however, because of the weight difference, the purple needed to be double-wrapped to keep the coil size consistent.
Lots of lessons learned (for instance, if you're going to "experiment," don't start with a project the size of a 6-quart dutch oven), but the biggest one is that I will never make another one of these again. I know I shouldn't say that, but I'm pretty sure now that I've done it, I don't need to repeat the process. Ever.
Curiosity satisfied.
Thursday, July 10, 2014
For a Texas cowboy...
My friend Judy welcomed her second grandchild this spring -- and what better use for this stash fabric than a quilt for a little Texas cowboy?
I'm not exactly sure why this print was in my possession (suffice it to say it's been in there a long time), but it was a perfect backing for this quick project, and worked really well with the cowboy hat print on the front. I also had an old Alexander Henry burgundy print to piece with it, and used a little in the binding.
My Western phase, thankfully, was brief, and this fabric is where it belongs, in a baby quilt in Houston.
The quilting turned out pretty neat: five lines a quarter-inch apart, running in a zig-zag. It didn't show up very well in any of the photos I took (except the in-progress detail here), so here's an overlay. It made it a little more interesting than just doing a grid.
Sydney, the neighbor's pup, had to supervise the nursery photo shoot. I warned her she might show up on the internet, and she didn't seem to have a problem with it.
I'm not exactly sure why this print was in my possession (suffice it to say it's been in there a long time), but it was a perfect backing for this quick project, and worked really well with the cowboy hat print on the front. I also had an old Alexander Henry burgundy print to piece with it, and used a little in the binding.
My Western phase, thankfully, was brief, and this fabric is where it belongs, in a baby quilt in Houston.
The quilting turned out pretty neat: five lines a quarter-inch apart, running in a zig-zag. It didn't show up very well in any of the photos I took (except the in-progress detail here), so here's an overlay. It made it a little more interesting than just doing a grid.
Sydney, the neighbor's pup, had to supervise the nursery photo shoot. I warned her she might show up on the internet, and she didn't seem to have a problem with it.
Thursday, July 3, 2014
Gifted at last...
Well, this one took way longer than expected! I was done with the top in short order last summer, but I knew how I wanted to quilt it and, quite honestly, I wasn't up for it. But the wedding couple's first anniversary was fast approaching, I was headed to Michigan and planned to see them, so it was pull-myself-up-by-the-bootstraps time.
Made with a Comma charm pack, Kona black and a few additional Comma squares, it measures 42"x56", and this is the only picture I have without Archie sitting on it -- for some reason, that cat LOVED this quilt, in all its various stages. There was so much hair on it I had to clean the dryer vent twice.
The quilting gets a little lost in the black, but I started off-center and just did one big spiral, using the edge of my walking foot as a guide. The lines are roughly a half inch apart. The whole thing got torqued a little out of shape from quilting continually in one direction, but I was able to tug it back to square...eventually.
I am definitely not crazy about going 'round and 'round in circles, but I do like the look when it's all done. And after washing when it gets all crinkly, I love it even more!
The back is Comma fabric, too. I wanted my message to be subtle, and I also didn't want to applique their names on it, so the strip reads K+M in Morse Code. It took Katie and Mike a couple weeks to figure it out, so I think I succeeded.
Made with a Comma charm pack, Kona black and a few additional Comma squares, it measures 42"x56", and this is the only picture I have without Archie sitting on it -- for some reason, that cat LOVED this quilt, in all its various stages. There was so much hair on it I had to clean the dryer vent twice.
The quilting gets a little lost in the black, but I started off-center and just did one big spiral, using the edge of my walking foot as a guide. The lines are roughly a half inch apart. The whole thing got torqued a little out of shape from quilting continually in one direction, but I was able to tug it back to square...eventually.
I am definitely not crazy about going 'round and 'round in circles, but I do like the look when it's all done. And after washing when it gets all crinkly, I love it even more!
The back is Comma fabric, too. I wanted my message to be subtle, and I also didn't want to applique their names on it, so the strip reads K+M in Morse Code. It took Katie and Mike a couple weeks to figure it out, so I think I succeeded.
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